Job offer for UK Reader

Question

I'm currently an assistant professor at a US university, three years away from coming up for tenure. Recently, a former colleague of mine who is a professor at a university in the UK approached me about joining their institution, as they were advertising a search in my area for all ranks (Lecturer-Professor).

Even though the interview didn't go particularly well in my opinion, I just got a job offer for Reader. However, their offer would effectively require me to take a 40% salary cut. When I applied, there was a form that asked me about my current salary. After asking about this, they replied that my current salary was not taken into account as it would create a "salary anomaly" with respect to what other Readers are being paid and that the salary isn't negotiable. Note that their job ad only stated a very broad salary range (for all ranks) and hence I did not anticipate this before applying.

1. Is this the usual experience when applying for academic jobs in the UK? Or, does this perhaps indicate that my application wasn't perceived to be particularly good after all?
2. They also stated that Reader is a "leadership position" in contrast to my current position and hence it would be a promotion. However, it's not exactly clear to me what this means in practice: Apart from the obvious advantage of not having to go through the tenure process, what other benefits does a Reader position provide over Assistant Professor?

Answer 1

Yes, UK salaries are currently significantly lower than US salaries at most ranks, and don't have much room for negotiation outside of a standard range. The only exception to this is "professor" in the UK (which is often closer to distinguished professor in the US) where there's more latitude for higher salaries.

One major reason for the salary gap is that as recently as Summer 2015 the pound was worth nearly 1.6 US dollars. If it comes back up then their offer would be more competitive, while if it goes down further then the offer will look even worse.

The only meaningful advantages I can see of a Reader over a US Assistant professor as a position is that there's more job security. But presumably if you're a strong candidate for a Readership you shouldn't be too worried about tenure, and at many US schools this offer would get you tenure this year in a retention package. (There are lots of advantages and disadvantages of UK vs. US which I won't get into, I'm only talking about the rank comparison.)

Answer 2

In my view it is completely misleading to compare salaries at all as you are ignoring the cost of living and other differences. You seem to be equating a UK salary with seniority based on a strict conversion to USD and seeing where that fits in the salary scale. This position is definitely a promotion.

The best way that I know of to compare salaries is to find the average (pre-tax) salary for both locations and compare the salary based on what multiple it is of the average. This gives a relative 'well-offness' rating.

However, UK academic salaries have the oddity that they are essentially the same wherever you are working. Really a lecturer salary in London is unliveable but is very good in say Northern England. Even a reader salary would be a struggle to live on in London if you were trying to support a family. So you definitely need to consider the cost of living in your comparison. Use a property rental site to get an idea as housing would be the biggest expense.

Answer 3

To add a bit more to the other fine answer:

1. There is a set and published salary range for Senior Lecturer/Reader at each UK University, and they are all close to the same. At my (and other) UK Unis this is grade 9. If you search for the University in question's salary scales, you can see the grade 9 range and that is what you have to work with. They cannot offer you more without making you a professor and making you a professor would be strange indeed (see 2)

2. Untenured assistant professor to reader is really quite a big promotion in UK terms. You started at what we'd call Lecturer and you've skipped a whole academic rank (Senior Lecturer) that most people would spend a few years at. As a reader you may be asked to serve as head of department, or on higher level University committees, etc. Yet the service jobs wont be as onerous as those for being a professor. You might get a further teaching buyout due to taking on some of these service roles. You'll have less teaching than the US anyway. As you are in a promoted position, more funding opportunities will be available to you via the research councils as you'll look senior on your CV. You also have the ability to apply for promotion to professor in your next promotion round (or as soon as you feel like you have the evidence). Reader is quite a good position to be in.

Answer 4

Comparing salaries across the Atlantic is really difficult, because there is so much difference in what they have to cover. It's worth using a cost-of-living index from the web to compare your old and new cities, but then you need to allow for differences in Healthcare costs, education costs if you have kids, the greater level of municipal services provided out of taxation... In general there's less you have to pay for in the UK. If you're potentially staying for a long time, then most UK academic jobs come with good pensions, where "behind the scenes" your employer currently contributes over 20% of your gross salary (this is currently under threat, and so may not continue to be the case. But it'll still remain better than the usually non-existent employer contributions in the US).

With all that said, under the current exchange rate a UK Reader is still likely to earn less than a US Professor (which is roughly the equivalent rank), but the differences can be smaller than they first appear.

As others have said, there are fixed national pay spines that most UK universities adhere to. You can find this with a search engine. Reader would usually be a Band 9 job (check the job ad to confirm), and there will be a range of salary points within Band 9. Within the band, the spine point is down to the individual institution. A common approach is for people to start at the bottom of their band and move up by one point each year, until they "max out" at the top of the band - at which point pay rises don't stop, because the pay scale as a whole is negotiated nationally each year, but they slow down dramatically. Universities can start people at a higher point within the band - a common reason is that somebody was previously earning more elsewhere - but the given reason of not paying the new guy more than existing staff of similar rank is a plausible one.

Jumping from Assistant Prof to Reader is a big leap up the academic ladder - some would argue that it skips a level - and while of course there will be personal considerations around any relocation, the biggest "advantage" is that you get this on your CV - so if, in a few years time, you find yourself moving back to the US, you will probably be looking to do so at full US Professor level (I'm not sure if/how "bypassing" the tenure process like that works, but that's a different question)