Campaigners target unis over Living Wage

Public services union UNISON, and the National Union of Students (NUS) have launched a campaign calling on all colleges, universities and students’ unions — including private contractors on campuses — to pay at least a Living Wage to all their workers.

The campaign will see the two unions creating a “league table” of the worst offenders - those with the biggest gap between the lowest and highest paid staff. The unions will also award those that do the right thing by giving a “kite mark” to the colleges and universities that agree to pay the Living Wage, which is currently £7.20 an hour outside London and £8.30 in the capital.

According to the latest figures, the average yearly income of a university vice-chancellor in 2009-10 was £218,813 and for a college principal it was £115,872 — though some earn significantly more. This compares to just £12,334 for the lowest paid workers — the minimum wage for a 40-hour week in 2009-10.

Even some of the UK’s most prestigious institutions are not paying the Living Wage. At Cambridge University and its colleges — where local union officials estimate that more than 1,000 employees are paid less than the Living Wage — the Vice-Chancellor earns £249,000 a year — almost 20 times the wage of the lowest paid worker on just £6.70 an hour.

www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2620