Male academics at UEA paid over 10% more than female colleagues

Damning stats published by the Union reveal the gender pay gap between male and female academics at UEA is over 10 per cent.

The average annual salary of female academics is £45,197, while their male equivalents earn £50,862, 11.14 per cent more.

At the level of professor, females earn on average £71,166 while male professors earn £72,177, an increase of over £1,000.

Other female senior academics are paid £73,385 on average and male senior academics receive £78,583, a difference of over £5,000.

The largest gender gap exists at the level of managers, directors and senior officials. While males earn an average of £57,717 each year, females only earn £50,288.

Across England, the average salary for women in managerial, directorial, or senior official roles is £51,156, meaning UEA pays females within these roles almost £1,000 less than the national average.

Elsewhere, female professional, technical and clerical staff earn £26,350 on average, but males earn £30,221.

Manual staff will earn £18,826 per year on average if they are female, while males will receive £19,611.

UEA Women’s Officer, Dolly Ogunrinde, who recently won the NUS Inspirational Woman Student of the Year Award, said: “I would like to say I am surprised but I am not. The gender pay gap is something that is very much evident in British society yet a lot of people try and ignore it.

“I think it’s really important women students who are interested in academia pursue it. Academic networks like ‘Resnet’ hold great events throughout the year that women students can use to network and get advice about pursuing a career in academia.

“As for the Union, it is definitely something that can be worked on. Bringing this sort of thing to as many people’s attention as possible is the beginning. If there’s anything a university doesn’t like, it’s bad press.

“I would love for the next Women’s Officer to work with the union on a campus-wide campaign raising the importance of this issue and hopefully getting it changed.”

On top of this, figures released also show Vice Chancellor Edward Acton’s annual salary was increased to £238,000, a 4.8 per cent pay rise from 2012-13. At the same time, other academic staff received a pay increase of only 2 per cent.