tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/low-pay-economy-79031/articlesLow pay economy – The Conversation2020-11-11T16:22:45Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1495592020-11-11T16:22:45Z2020-11-11T16:22:45ZWhy living wages should be a priority during COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368897/original/file-20201111-15-1f92dz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C21%2C3590%2C2549&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's a living, just: an NHS worker marching for a pay rise, July 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yui Mok/PA Wire/PA Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Work should lift people out of poverty - but, increasingly, those in low-paid jobs are suffering as much as the unemployed. <a href="https://www.livingwage.org.uk">The Living Wage</a> offers a solution. It is a wage sufficient to live a decent standard of life, independent of welfare and other public subsidies. While some have previously argued that living wages distort labour markets and increase organisational costs, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1359432X.2020.1838604">our review</a> offers an alternative perspective. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/47/1/47/4079898">results show</a> that poor-quality work has a more detrimental impact on health than unemployment. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100464">According to research</a>, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2020.04.046">disproportionate</a> accumulative impact among low-paid workers, in both health and precarious work. In light of this, a living wage is even more vital.</p>
<p>Until now, the study of living wages has <a href="https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.XXXVIII.3.490">been the preserve of economists</a>. But work psychologists, sociologists and management scholars are now examining the subject from a different perspective which focuses on the individual. Precarious work removes the responsibility from employers and forces significant costs on to individuals – and society, which has to make up for the shortfall out of government subsidies. Low-paid, poor-quality, depleting work needs to be recognised for what it is: unsustainable, deeply damaging and costly for any society. </p>
<p>Our review, an assessment of 115 papers of interdisciplinary living wage research, reveals three important reasons to support the normalisation of a living wage. </p>
<h2>1. Healthier employees</h2>
<p>Living wages stop working people from having to choose between heating and food. They help make workforces sustainable, providing more money to make feeding and supporting a family more viable.</p>
<p>Working a reasonable amount, without juggling multiple jobs or too many hours, allows people to recover more fully from their toil, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.3.674">reducing their fatigue</a>, boosting their immune systems and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612439720">improving their general health</a>. As a result they take less time off work, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2004.028142">making them more viable employees</a> with longer life expectancy. More leisure time and increased means created by decent wages also promote <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00977.x">improved family relations</a>, reducing levels of aggression in the family home. </p>
<p>We believe more time for activities such as bedtime stories with children has enormous benefits for a child educationally and in terms of their relationship with their parent, as shown by research from <a href="https://literacytrust.org.uk/blog/seven-things-i-learned-reading-bedtime-story-every-night-2018/">the Literacy Trust</a>.</p>
<p>It allows workers to have even a small amount of savings to buffer against surprise essential spending: new school shoes, a car or boiler repair. It allows families to make healthier choices, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5052-2">as research shows</a> that, given the means, people choose healthy food over cheap food - <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/nov/08/marcus-rashford-forces-boris-johnson-into-second-u-turn-on-child-food-poverty">even as food poverty rises</a>. </p>
<p>Less sick leave is not the only cost reduced by the living wage. Employers who pay it <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0b73b6f0link">are better able to retain their workers</a>, reducing recruitment and selection costs, and overtime paid to cover absent workers. Living wages help to increase the number and quality of new applicant pools. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118972472">Reduced turnover</a> of staff <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0b73b6f0">frees up management</a> from the time and costs associated with training. </p>
<h2>2. A more skilled workforce</h2>
<p>Capability is the second notable <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10301763.2016.1152533">benefit from living wages</a>. These workers have the means and time to <a href="https://eh.net/book_reviews/the-living-wage-lessons-from-the-history-of-economic-thought/">invest in themselves</a>. The possibility of returning to education and gaining qualifications creates choices for the future, or they may simply have time for a hobby. They can build careers, but also engage with lifelong learning, developing viable futures. They can start pensions, reducing their reliance on the state. These workers feel respected and better treated, which – together with the improvement to their health and well-being – further improves their quality of life, and with it their job and life satisfaction.</p>
<p>Investment can be made to up-skill the retained workforce. <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0b73b6f0">Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/cwed/briefs/2014-%2004.pdf">improves</a> among these more expensive workers in a number of important ways. They can work harder because they aren’t physically or emotionally exhausted; they are less cognitively depleted; and they are less distracted by the worries and anxieties that accompany poverty. Productivity is also boosted indirectly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0421-9">through job satisfaction</a>, and improved attention to work, which reduces how often people make mistakes.</p>
<p>As well as improved production, these businesses see inventory and waste management costs decline. More alert workers notice problems concerning their work and have greater mental resources to come up with solutions, boosting the creativity and innovation of a workforce. They deliver a better-quality service and product, which enhances customer satisfaction levels. These workers feel more respected, so are more engaged to speak up and voice their concerns.</p>
<h2>3. Less reliance on state subsidies</h2>
<p>The state not only covers subsidised housing and welfare <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2473476">to offset shortfalls in these employers’ pay packets</a>. There are additional social, psychological and health consequences that arise from low wages. The cost of depression and other diminishing mental health afflictions <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen%E2%80%932014%E2%80%93007336">are raised by poorly paid work</a>, along with further health issues from elevated levels of heart disease, diabetes and cancer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5052-2">among these workers</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612439720">The consequences of non-living wage workers’ dwindling health</a> casts shadows for years on their lives and those of their families, with the resulting complex caring responsibilities of these increasingly chronic conditions affecting other family member’s work and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0164027517742430">economic viability</a>. Those in low-paid work can expect to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/47/1/47/4079898">lose decades of their lives</a> compared to their better-paid peers. </p>
<p>All of these health factors add further strains on already resource-impoverished families, fuelling tensions in their relationships. Poverty has also been shown to lead to neglect, as parent ends up too exhausted from work or just not around. This <a href="https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2009-52DisparitiesELExecSumm.pdf">adds further strain</a> to remedial educational provisions, welfare and social care costs, and in extreme cases, additional policing and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002214650504600404">criminal justice bills</a>. </p>
<p>And it’s important not to forget the psychological consequences of being part of a stigmatised group such as low-paid or precarious workers – <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2003-07329-002">the sense of shame</a> and loss of identity experienced when a person feels like they do not contribute enough to society. </p>
<p>Living wages enable sustainable livelihoods for workers and their families. Beyond that, they provide the capability to shift out of poverty. In doing so they remove reliance on state subsidy, toward self-sufficiency and thriving.</p>
<p>Condoning any employers’ decision to forgo paying a living wage is not without costs: their chosen business model is predicated on a high but hidden subsidy, paid for by taxpayers and the state, and through the diminished lives of these workers. </p>
<p>Amid growing wealth disparity, COVID-19 has highlighted the consequences of low pay. There are choices to be made. Living wages <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/089124240426864">are a bedrock</a> to building sustainable and capable societies. When times are tough, why would you settle for anything less?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalind Searle is affiliated with European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ishbel McWha-Hermann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent research shows a living wage creates healthier employees, less pressure on government subsidies and a skilled workforce.Rosalind Searle, Professor of HRM and organisational Psychology, University of GlasgowIshbel McWha-Hermann, Lecturer in International Human Resource Management, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1432992020-07-29T09:26:45Z2020-07-29T09:26:45ZNew points-based immigration system will lead to care crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349906/original/file-20200728-25-kk40sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=216%2C33%2C5317%2C2950&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/unrecognizable-health-visitor-senior-woman-during-735361741">Shutterstock/Halfpoint</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK is on the brink of losing the highly skilled and experienced migrant workers currently propping up the care sector. If the government does not make changes to its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-points-based-immigration-system-further-details-statement">new points-based immigration system</a> a major crisis could emerge. These key workers cannot be replaced by digital innovations, while UK workers are increasingly reluctant to enter into what is a low-paid and extremely stressful profession.</p>
<p>It is estimated that the care sector requires 520,000 additional workers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/27/england-social-care-plans-need-timetable-and-be-a-radical-rethink-councils-funding?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">before 2035</a> to support the UK’s ageing population. The sector currently relies on migrant workers. Most migrant care workers are set to be excluded from the government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-points-based-immigration-system-further-details-statement">points-based immigration system</a>, unveiled in July, because the pay is so low. </p>
<p>From 2021, new rules will require a minimum pay threshold of £20,480. This will effectively prevent migrant care workers and home carers from entering the UK because average pay for care workers is £16,500 per year. Low pay means that, regardless of their ability to accrue transferable points, care workers will not be eligible for visas.</p>
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<p>Additionally, the work done by care workers and home carers does not meet the skills threshold for the new <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/899755/UK_Points-Based_System_Further_Details_Web_Accessible.pdf">Health and Care Visa</a>. This visa will fast track migrants in the healthcare sector, offering reduced application fees and exempting them from the <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7274/">Immigration Health Surcharge</a> (£624 per year from October 2020). But the new visa is only for doctors, nurses and other health professionals – not care workers. Excluding care workers could potentially be disastrous. </p>
<h2>Freedom of movement</h2>
<p>For the past decade, approximately one in six – or 83,000 – of the 1.5m home care and care workers in England have been non-UK nationals. While the <a href="http://circle.group.shef.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/SC-PB_June-2020_Migrant-workers-in-England%E2%80%99s-homecare-sector.pdf">proportion of migrants</a> has been stable, their countries of origin have changed. Most migrant care workers came from outside the EU until 2012, when the current minimum pay threshold of £30,000 was introduced. After 2012, EU migrants took up care work jobs because this minimum pay threshold did not apply to free movement. </p>
<p>Brexit will end free movement for EU care workers at the same time as the new salary threshold is applied to migrants. Currently, the sector has an <a href="http://circle.group.shef.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/SC-PB_June-2020_Migrant-workers-in-England%E2%80%99s-homecare-sector.pdf">8% vacancy rate</a>. Where will desperately needed new workers come from? Leading health bodies, care workers and home carers themselves are deeply <a href="https://www.basw.co.uk/media/news/2020/may/points-based-immigration-proposals-are-concern-future-availability-social">worried about this change</a>. </p>
<p>Migrant care workers are typically <a href="https://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Facing%20the%20Future%20Tackling%20post-Brexit%20Labour%20and%20skills%20NIESR.CIPD_.pdf">overqualified</a>. Many have professional healthcare qualifications in nursing, or prior experience in the sector. Care work does not offer adequate remuneration to reflect their skills. It involves depressed wages, long hours and difficult work conditions that <a href="https://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Facing%20the%20Future%20Tackling%20post-Brexit%20Labour%20and%20skills%20NIESR.CIPD_.pdf">discourage British workers</a>. Migrants can endure these conditions when they are able to invest their earnings in property, business and family betterment back home (where many will hope to retire).</p>
<p>For British workers, on the other hand, care work’s low wages rarely lead to better prospects. Many find themselves pushed towards the care sector when they cannot find other work. Often this push comes at a point where they have little security in their housing and personal lives. Adding to their insecurity, around one-quarter of care work is now delivered through <a href="https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/adult-social-care-workforce-data/Workforce-intelligence/documents/State-of-the-adult-social-care-sector/State-of-Report-2019.pdf">zero-hours contracts</a>. </p>
<p>With under-staffing, longer hours or truncated visits, even care workers working steady hours find themselves overwhelmed and exhausted. <a href="https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Documents/NMDS-SC-and-intelligence/Research-evidence/Impact-of-longer-working-hours-on-quality-of-care-final-report.pdf">Research shows</a> that staff shortages and longer hours lead to increased fatigue, irritability, and demotivation for workers – and these conditions can lead to potentially dangerous mistakes.</p>
<h2>Chronic labour shortages</h2>
<p>But if migrants are blocked from taking these roles then UK residents will be expected to plug the gaps. In April, the health minister, Matt Hancock, began a recruitment drive for the sector, targeting 20-39 year-olds. Previous recruitment drives have done little to alleviate the sector’s chronic labour shortages. Despite a 20% increase in <a href="https://www.homecareinsight.co.uk/fall-in-job-applications-highlights-covid-19-challenge-facing-care-providers/">advertised care roles</a> in the first quarter of 2020, applications decreased by 17.8%. Previous drives haven’t affected the sector’s 30% <a href="https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/adult-social-care-workforce-data/Workforce-intelligence/documents/State-of-the-adult-social-care-sector/State-of-Report-2019.pdf">turnover rate</a> which has risen from 23% in 2012. Data on recruitment and retention tell us these are not desirable jobs.</p>
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<p>Current care workers report highly exploitative <a href="https://www.carehome.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/1611239/overnight-care-workers-forced-to-sleep-in-offices-and-told-bring-your-own-bedding">conditions</a> including a lack of adequate sleeping and sanitary facilities. Precarious conditions and low pay have meant some care workers have had to use foodbanks and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/58c638f4-46c9-11e8-8ee8-cae73aab7ccb">claim benefits</a>. Meanwhile, in the COVID-19 pandemic, female careworkers and home carers have had the highest <a href="https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/06/26/social-carers-at-higher-risk-of-covid-death-compared-with-general-population">death rates</a> of all occupations for women.</p>
<p>Jobs in the rest of the healthcare sector are being transformed. The NHS has furthered its “digital first” approach during the pandemic, spurred on by social distancing requirements, through NHSX – its new digital branch, which was formed in April 2019. With annual investment of more than £1bn, <a href="https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/about-us/what-we-do/">NHSX</a> claims to be the “largest digital health and social care transformation programme in the world”. But the video/telephone/email consultations that are proving effective for other patient and staff groups will be slow to come to care work. Though these technologies can <a href="https://rsa.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17450101.2018.1518841#.XyAGJp5Kg2w">lower costs in other health settings</a>, the feeding, cleaning and personal care which comprises care work cannot be digitised. </p>
<p>Devaluing care and labelling care workers “unskilled” has created a sense of <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N2VVEJ7?tag=duckduckgo-osx-uk-21&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1">alienation</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/17/day-in-the-life-of-a-care-worker-zero-hours-contracts">hopeless frustration</a> for British care workers. Long hours, low pay, intensely physical and emotionally demanding work can undermine the ability of carers <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d8d82ebe-9cbc-11e8-88de-49c908b1f264">to care</a> – either for themselves or others. Improvements to pay and working conditions are long overdue. But it is a change in the new immigration scheme that is needed most, if the <a href="https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/research/what-can-england-learn-from-the-long-term-care-system-in-germany">emerging crisis</a> is to be averted.</p>
<p>Huge sections of the UK community rely entirely on these un-cared for workers. A coerced and reluctant workforce will most definitely affect the quality of care the sector delivers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maddy Thompson receives funding from The Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deirdre McKay receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Mellon Foundation. She is Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Studies (UK).</span></em></p>If the UK loses the highly skilled and experienced migrant workers who currently prop up the sector, a major crisis could emerge.Maddy Thompson, Postdoctoral fellow, Keele UniversityDeirdre McKay, Reader in Geography and Environmental Politics, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275352019-11-27T04:19:36Z2019-11-27T04:19:36ZUniversity strikes: yes, students should get compensation – but not in the form of monetary payment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302940/original/file-20191121-479-cda53x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C22%2C4985%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-march-14-2018-academy-1047254494?src=299978c3-456f-4ac9-8e19-be8ceff2f480-1-76">shutterstock/Ajit Wick</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some students, many of who pay up to £9,250 in tuition fees a year, are <a href="https://wonkhe.com/blogs/unpicking-strikes-tuition-fees-and-possible-refunds/">demanding tuition fee refunds</a> for the university strikes that are currently taking place. Members of the University and College Union (UCU) <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/10408/UCU-announces-eight-days-of-strikes-starting-this-month-at-60-universities">are on strike</a> for eight days between November 25 and December 4. </p>
<p>Like the last strikes in 2018, this latest strike in some institutions is about pensions. But it’s also about pay, equality, casualisation and workloads within <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-losing-sight-of-higher-educations-true-purpose-73637">higher education</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-race-to-turn-higher-education-into-a-market-were-ignoring-lessons-from-history-35792">marketisation</a> of the higher education sector, the value of a <a href="https://network23.org/freeunisheff/files/2015/07/Mike-Molesworth-Richard-Scullion-Elizabeth-Nixon-The-Marketisation-of-Higher-Education-and-the-Student-as-Consumer-book.pdf">student’s university experience</a> is something that cannot be easily quantified in monetary terms. The primary concern of which should be good quality education. And this amounts to much more than a group of lecturers not being present at work for a week. Nevertheless, as customer aware students raise their concerns, it’s worth thinking about this refund request properly. </p>
<h2>The case for why</h2>
<p>As an economist, but also as an educator, I believe students should get a refund – but not in the form of monetary payments. I’ll talk you through why.</p>
<p>Busting the myth that university education is based on lectures and seminars, a fully rounded <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-universities-will-have-to-pay-more-attention-to-the-quality-of-their-teaching-47186">university experience</a> is about much more than contact time. Indeed, students today are taught in many different ways. Yes there are seminars and lectures, but also digital and self-paced training. </p>
<p>Beyond the classroom, universities also offer a much wider range of services. These include libraries, careers advice, student support services, well-being programmes and counselling. It also includes financial advice, English language and maths support, as well as bespoke support for students affected by learning difficulties or disabilities. </p>
<p>Equally important determinants of a good university education are the <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-artificial-intelligence-will-shape-the-future-of-universities-94706">physical spaces</a> – think classrooms, accommodation, recreational areas, and sports facilities. And the social spaces – student societies, volunteering initiatives – as well as the staff and student academic community as a whole. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/missing-from-the-tuition-fees-debate-student-well-being-and-the-public-benefits-of-higher-education-80921">Student fees</a> finance this whole apparatus, not just lectures. This includes the heating of buildings, water supply, carbon emission abatement and much more. While some lecturers will be on strike, and part of the student experience will be disrupted, it’s also true that universities will continue to run all other services.</p>
<p>Another important aspect to be considered is how contact time will be impacted for different degrees. For instance, students attending courses with a lot of teaching time will be deprived of lectures. But students on placements might only be marginally affected by the strike.</p>
<h2>The nature of student fees</h2>
<p>There’s also the fact that although some students (mostly internationals) face the cost of education upfront, many finance their university degree through government loans. When considering services sold against an upfront payment, it might make sense to claim for compensation if the service is suspended. But when universities receive student fees from government loans, the idea that students could claim for compensation against future repayments of a loan becomes more difficult to rationalise. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302953/original/file-20191121-467-e81sf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302953/original/file-20191121-467-e81sf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302953/original/file-20191121-467-e81sf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302953/original/file-20191121-467-e81sf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302953/original/file-20191121-467-e81sf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302953/original/file-20191121-467-e81sf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302953/original/file-20191121-467-e81sf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Many universities have taken the position that no refunds for lost teaching will be issued to students.</span>
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<p>Further complicating the matter, is the fact that <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-graduates-will-never-pay-off-their-student-loans-80582">some students will never have to repay their university loan</a>. Graduates are expected to make payments against their loans when their income exceeds a given threshold. But figures show that not all students will ever earn enough – or not consistently over the 30 years before the loan is written off. </p>
<p>From the end of 2018, the Office for National Statistics started to consider <a href="https://obr.uk/box/accounting-treatment-and-policy-developments-affecting-student-loans/">part of student loans as public spending</a>. This decision takes into account that student debt will be written off in the future and implies that if students will not be repaying debt, the taxpayer will. So in theory, taxpayers could also rightfully claim compensation for the university strikes.</p>
<p>Ultimately though, computing the monetary value of compensation students could be entitled is far too complex. And it does not account for the fact that students will be affected by the strikes differently. </p>
<h2>Different kind of compensation</h2>
<p>I am fully supportive of the idea that students should see remedial actions for the disruption they are facing. But it’s important to emphasise that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-top-five-reasons-the-rich-like-to-donate-to-universities-69434">universities are charities</a>. They do not maximise profits but re-invest any excess of revenue over costs on improvements of their facilities and recruitment of additional labour. </p>
<p>Since lecturers participating in strike actions will give up pay, universities will find themselves in the position of accumulating extra funds from unpaid wages. So here is an opportunity for students. These funds could be reinvested in interventions to <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-9-000-students-expect-their-classes-to-go-digital-22775">improve student learning</a> and teaching. This could include refurbishing classrooms, updating technology, investing in better mental health provision and so on. </p>
<p>There is another important advantage of this kind of compensation: since these extra funds are accrued locally, student representation and university management can negotiate how to allocate such funds on the basis of specific needs. And they could even take into consideration which groups of students will be most disrupted by the strike. </p>
<p>Many UK university lecturers are now on strike until December 4. During this time, many students will also stand in solidarity with their teachers. But this doesn’t take away from the fact that students are concerned about missing teaching time. From an economic perspective, fee refunds are not a consistent or fair option. And with the quality of their education at stake, students would not gain much from obtaining a fees refund – teaching enhancement claims are a better way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fabio Aricò has received funding from HEA (now AdvanceHE) and HEFCE (now OfS).</span></em></p>Should students get refunds during strike action? An education economist gives his thoughts.Fabio Aricò, Associate Professor in Macroeconomics, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.