UEA Greens Launch Fair Pay Campaign

The Green Party society at UEA have asked the Vice Chancellor to commit to five pledges.


On Wednesday 10th October, the Green Party society at UEA launched their ‘Fair Pay Campus’ campaign.

A group of students presented Vice Chancellor Edward Acton with a letter asking him to commit the University to five pledges centred around shrinking the pay ratio between the highest and lowest worker on campus to no greater than 10:1.

This action is part of a national campaign initiated by the Young Greens, the body of the Green Party made up of students and Green Party members under the age of 30.

The Young Greens cite academic evidence such as that of Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson’s ‘The Spirit Level’ as evidence of the negative impacts that inequality within institutions has on productivity and general wellbeing of workers.

President of the UEA Greens, Chris Jarvis said ‘Universities have the highest average pay ratio of the public sector and it has been rising in recent years, currently averaging at 15:1 in the Higher Education sector.

This growing inequality is grossly unfair, especially at a time of austerity when public sector workers are being made redundant, and departments at Universities are being cut, as we saw with the shutting down of the UEA Music Centre,’ adding ‘Vice Chancellors must ensure that fairness is at the heart of any cuts that are being made due to Government austerity.

The rising pay gap between highest and lowest paid workers across the Higher Education sector suggests that this principle is not being carried out’

The pledges that the UEA Greens asked the Vice Chancellor to fulfil were:

  • To publish the pay of Vice Chancellors and senior management
  • To publish the ration between highest and lowest paid workers
  • To commit to working towards a 10:1 ratio of pay on campus
  • To pledge to pay directly employed  workers a living wage
  • To ensure contractors pay their workers a living wage

The launch of this campaign follows York University’s Young Greens group launching their 10:1 campaign in May 2012 and other Green Party groups on campuses across England and Wales will be organising similar campaigns in the months to come.