{"id":3181,"date":"2026-01-31T21:23:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3181"},"modified":"2026-01-31T21:23:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T21:23:48","slug":"the-golden-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3181","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Golden 50’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The mean inflation-adjusted pay of University of Cambridge staff has been flat for more than a decade. In isolation, that might sound like stagnation. In context, it is far more revealing. When pay rises are captured by those at the top, the average should rise. If it does not, there is only one possible explanation: most workers are losing ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make this distributional reality explicit, we divide staff into two groups: the \u201cGolden 50\u201d<\/strong>\u2014the fifty highest earners\u2014and “the Rest<\/strong>” or everyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The graph shows inflation-adjusted pay, benchmarked to 2019, with the Golden 50 in red and the Rest in blue. The picture is stark. Since 2019, the real pay of the Golden 50 has risen by around\u00a010%. Over the same period, the real pay of the remaining workforce has\u00a0fallen by roughly 10%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not shared sacrifice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a deliberate redistribution, hidden in plain sight by a conveniently flat average. The mean has stood still because gains at the top have been offset by losses everywhere else. In other words, stability at the headline level masks a quiet but systematic transfer from the many to the few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rising pay for those who run the institution has been financed by declining pay for those who sustain it. Senior management profit, the rest of us are left to bear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(This answers the question raised by Bimodal in the comments of the previous blog posting)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mean inflation-adjusted pay of University of Cambridge staff has been flat for more than a decade. In isolation, that might sound like stagnation. In context, it is far more revealing. When pay rises are captured by those at the top, the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t