Women academics face £8,000 pay gap

Universities are breaking the equal pay laws by paying women academics up to £8,000 less than men doing the same jobs, according to research by lecturers' union NATFHE. And a separate study of academics specialising in economics revealed that ethnic minority lecturers earn £2,500 less than their white colleagues.

The NATFHE research compares the pay of male and female professors and lecturers teaching the same subject and found the largest difference among professors of anatomy and physiology, where men earn £8,000 more than women. Close behind is veterinary science with a £7,000 difference. Nursing and paramedical studies was the only subject in which female professors earn more - just over £1,000 - but at lecturer level men still earn more.

Tom Wilson, head of NATFHE's universities department, said: "NATFHE's research destroys the myth that unequal pay can somehow be explained away. These figures prove beyond doubt that women are paid less than the men they work alongside".

He added: "the only explanation for these findings is that women academics are being appointed at lower points on the pay scale than men and stand much less chance of promotion. Further analyses show the pay gap is not explained by age differences either".

NATFHE and other higher education unions are pressing for a national agreement to end pay discrimination and to curb the abuse of part-time contracts that often discriminate against women.

This research follows figures published by NATFHE last year comparing male and female academic pay in different higher education institutions. It found men earn on average £4,307 more than female academics, and up to £20,000 more in some universities.

And the separate study of the pay of academics in economics found that ethnic minority staff earned 8% less than their white counterparts. The survey, by the University of London and the University of Wales, asked more than 500 economists about their pay and found a pay gap of 13% before age and other individual characteristics were taken into account.