Academics and pay cuts
Posted by Maman Poulet on 06 Jan 2009 at 12:43 am | Tagged as: Irish Politics, Recession
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Associate Professor of Finance at TCD, Dr. Brian Lucey, was on Nightly News with Vincent Browne (TV3) tonight saying he would not mind taking a pay cut as he’s a very well paid public sector worker and can afford to do so. Of course he also thinks others should follow his lead.
I imagine it might be a bit frosty in Senior Common Room tomorrow as he takes his coffee. Some of the more lowly or maybe that should be less onscreen academics might have a bone or two to pick. And others might point to media appearance fees and column remittances that Dr. Lucey may be earning as a result of the bank crisis that make it ok for him to take a cut.
Is there an appetite for pay cuts in Irish academia I have not yet heard about?
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Indeed. What percentage of Dr Lucey’s total income does his public sector salary make up?
Is he on drugs? Or does he follow the Cowenesque patriotism strategy?
Being permanent and full-time/ well-paid is more the exception rather than the norm in academic life these days. Perhaps Dr Lucey could persuade some of the deadwood in academia to ‘retire’ and give opportunities to others, if he really wants to make some changes. Alternatively do something about all the perks senior academics enjoy, such as endless sabbaticals, etc. when they should be teaching!
Why would pay cuts be such a bad thing especially if they start with those on the top and with permanency of position and loads of perks?
I find strange (though it goes back to when partnership started) that the priority is not preserving jobs and the level of services but the protection of pay and conditions for those who get to keep their jobs and those who lose their jobs are just collateral damage in that process. If the country is as screwed as we are told it is then why not start with those at the top? I can’t imagine there are too many graduate researchers who are rolling in it, or even post-docs for that matter but instead of reducing the cash to those with permanent positions it will be whole projects that will be cancelled or postponed.
While I am only going on MP’s reportage, I would suggest that Lucey would be trying (or possibly implying!) to suggest a pay cut as a solution for all.
Subsequent to my earlier posting, I did reflect on why someone who’s well paid – possibly on 120K pa – would open a can of worms about their (over)paid status… putting it another way, if salary X is the going salary for a job, then why is he questioning why people merit salary X? (Ultimately gets a bit communistic where a Dr is paid the same as a cleaner, comrade!) This leads me to ask if salaries the route of the financial dilemmas of the Celtic Ox economy (a stubborn animal that doesn’t do as it’s told and bites your bum)? You know, most people have *nothing* to do with this mess: it isn’t the people’s fault, it is the so-called golden circle, who’ve put us on the route to the IMF by 2010/2011 if Cowen doesn’t get off the fence and actually do something useful. Lucey’s comment is more of a ruse, the more I think about it.
PS: we do need to rename the Celtic Tiger, my feeling is Ox is good = Chinese New Year, symbolically about a fraught time, getting back to reality, etc., etc…. can anyone do better Suzy?
[...] Academics and pay cuts [...]
120k? Picking figures out of the sky? heads of schools and deans maybe but not lecturers? Or would you be including all the other income streams possible?
And renaming – at the moment snail or ostrich – burying head in sand or something?
Well…..g’day to you all. Some facts first.
Keith – €320 in total last year from all media activities. Paid for the Xmas dinner for the family, after tax. So not a lot. Frankly, if you were following the last few months, I try to talk on things pertinent to finance (AKA professing my discipline) and would do it for nout.
SearR – Ive had one sabbatical for a term in 9 years. My job, and others, is to teach and research. Not just teach. And, the Associate Professorial Salary topout in TCD is a lot less than 120k, alas! Go check. My comment isnt a ruse. Its a deliberate result of the economic logic that we need to reduce public sector wage bill, and to do so without job losses the only way is wage losses. As someone on the higher end of wages in the PS I can afford to lose more than say a CO. What my comments could be a ruse to (for?) Im unsure. I have no agenda and represent nobody bar the voices in my head.
Thanks for the responses tho!
Brian, I was being a bit ironic, but my point is that I don’t think calling for pay cuts is helpful politically.
I did a fact-check, and the Associate Professorial salary scale is from €82.8 – 110K per annum, that may be not quite my suggested €120K, but it’s sure as heck a long way from the average industrial wage or my own paltry €290 per week, part-time/ term-time admin post in TCD library! You may not have had a sabbatical since the last century, but – to contextualise my gripe at you – I didn’t get any welfare payment over the Xmas period (because I suspect the Welfare budget 2008 was gone by mid December). And I’m still waiting for the check! But I’m not bitter. I’m not!!!
I’m sure there are people ‘at the top’ of academia who’ve done well out of the system, but I do think they’re few and far between. The main problem, in my view, is the inability of universities to get rid of the ‘old guard’ who can stay until 69, one hand, or the useless lecturers, on the other. Performance-related pay might be a way forward, rather than pay cuts, but Departmental alliances would help, and – as I recall from the college’s re-organisation of a couple of year’s back – the business school wanted to ‘go it alone’… and that may have put more of a workload on you and your colleagues….
My quip about your comment being a ruse was not well-expressed, but my thinking, as a lefty sociologist, was how your comment (from a powerful position) contributes to a discourse of fear about economics. Pay cuts for all gets ‘rooted’ out there in the ether and it becomes used as a stick to keep people in line. Personally, I don’t think people on whatever salary they’re on “did” anything to cause this economic mess… it is simply not working people’s fault, and while you may be willing to do the honorable thing for Ireland, etc, I think you’re in a minority on this one.
SeanR
The relative pay is exactly what I contend makes those like me more able to bear the burden than others. Hence the call.
If people recast this as “cuts for all”, thats not my fault. I made it clear, as has for example Morgan Kelly, that those of us at hte top can and should takethe pain and the initiative.
A discourse of fear is totally appropriate here – its scary and getting worse, with nobodys hand on the tiller!