Why Fair Pay is important

Why fair pay is important

Since 2009, pay in further and higher education has been cut every year. Every year, our employers in colleges and universities have made offers that are far lower than the rising cost of living.

As a result, lecturers, researchers and other professionals in further and higher education have seen their pay effectively cut by between 13 and 15% over four years.

Pay is falling as job cuts create heavier workloads and higher stress levels. So staff have to work harder while taking home less money to their families.

Pay cuts are bad for education in the UK:

If the problem of falling pay is not addressed, colleges and universities simply won’t be able to recruit and retain the brightest people to work for them and the quality of education as well as research in the UK will fall.

Politicians talk about the importance of a skilled, trained, highly educated population to our economy and to the life chances of our people, yet they will do nothing to invest properly in this education.

Our employers make decisions about where they spend the money they have every day, but they are failing to prioritise the staff who make our colleges and universities work.

Pay cuts are bad for the economy:

If the quality of education suffers, so will those learners of all ages who go through our colleges or graduate from our universities.

The pay cuts in further and higher education are part of the wider problems of living standards facing people across the UK. That’s why the TUC has launched a campaign to win support for pay rises for all working people.

Britain needs a pay rise to ensure that people feel secure and safe enough to spend money, that the economy grows properly and that living standards recover for all our people.