{"id":3198,"date":"2026-02-09T09:45:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3198"},"modified":"2026-02-09T10:36:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T10:36:41","slug":"a-brutal-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3198","title":{"rendered":"A Brutal Plot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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At the University of Cambridge, higher-paid groups see larger pay increases over time, leading to ever- widening inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plots show how pay departs from the University of Cambridge average across progressively smaller, higher-paid groups. The outer layer is the \u201cGolden Fifty,<\/em><\/strong>\u201d the fifty highest earners, introduced before<\/a>. Within this sits the \u201cInner Five<\/em><\/strong>\u201d, the five highest earners, narrowing to a single apex: the Vice-Chancellor.<\/em><\/strong> The plot is the difference between the average of the higher-paid groups and the average pay of all staff in each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gap between the highest- and lowest-paid groups has steadily widened over time. Nominally (but not in real terms), pay has increased across all groups, but the largest gains have consistently gone to those already earning the most, meaning the distance between top and bottom pay levels has grown year on year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent pay changes have not just maintained existing inequalities, but have actively increased them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Substantial increases in senior management pay are justified on the grounds that these roles are occupied by exceptionally talented individuals, and that the University must offer market-rate remuneration to attract and retain such talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the financial position of the University<\/a>, the performance of the endowment<\/a>, the steady fall down international rankings<\/a>, press reports of rampant bullying & harassment <\/a>and the dysfunction of its HR department, it’s hard to believe that this is the case. (It’s fair to point out that many of these problems pre-date the appointment of the current Vice Chancellor).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The 21 Group has upcoming stories on Keele and Bath Universities. We will be continuing our analysis of Cambridge University’s accounts, as the patterns are generic in UK Higher Education. Unsurprisingly, the financial management of Universities is beginning to attract attention of press and politicians<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

At the University of Cambridge, higher-paid groups see larger pay increases over time, leading to ever- widening inequality. The plots show how pay departs from the University of Cambridge average across progressively smaller, higher-paid groups. The outer layer is the \u201cGolden Fifty,\u201d the fifty highest earners, introduced before. Within this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3198"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3215,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions\/3215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}