Pay awards

Information for staff about pay awards

The Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) conducts collective pay negotiations with the five Higher Education trade unions (UCU, UNISON, Unite, EIS and GMB) on behalf of a significant number of UK HE institutions. This is done through the Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES). UCEA member institutions decide individually whether they will participate in each negotiating round to address the uplift to be applied to the national pay spine. The negotiations take place annually, between March and May with dispute resolution meetings held in July if necessary.

The University remains committed to the national bargaining arrangements via New JNCHES and is committed to constructive dialogue with the trade unions. Once agreed for implementation, the University applies the pay award to all staff on non-clinical grades. Further information about the process is available from the UCEA website.

Separate arrangements exist for Clinical pay awards, which are agreed nationally by UCEA and effective from 1 April each year. The awards tend to reflect what has been agreed for NHS salary scales.

Separate arrangements are in place to review the Oxford University Weighting.

Changes to the University pay spine (effective from 1 August 2024 until 31 July 2025)

The national pay negotiations for 2024/25 have concluded and University non-clinical salary scales updated to reflect the pay award, which will be implemented on October pay day and backdated to 1 August 2024. This reflects pay levels effective from 1 August 2024 until 31 July 2025 and is further to the increases delivered as a result of the outcomes of the Pay and Conditions review. These include:

  1. a pensionable Oxford University Weighting of £1,500 a year (pro rata) for all staff on grades 1–10 of the main salary and grading structure (implemented in the September 2024 payroll and backdated to 1 August 2024);
  2. an uplift of one increment from bottom to top of the salary scale for Associate Professors on grade 10a (which includes payroll system grades 30S, 36S, 38S and 39Q), so that everyone on an Associate Professor pay grade moves up the salary scale by one increment (around a 3% rise), over and above this year’s standard inflationary pay rises and incremental progression (implemented in the September 2024 payroll and backdated to 1 August 2024). It applies to the University portion of joint appointments. Colleges will communicate separately to academic staff with joint appointments, concerning the college salary contribution; and
  3. for research staff, extension of the top of the discretionary scale for each grade from 6 to 10 by one incremental point (implemented in the October 2024 payroll and backdated to 1 August 2024)
 

Pay scales

Information about past pay awards (both clinical and non-clinical) can be downloaded below. 

Expand All

PERS(19)07 2019 Salary increases for clinical academic and related staff
PERS(19)06 Revision of University salary scales 2019: all non-clinical staff
PERS(19)04 Recoding miscellaneous pay and the introduction of new allowances
PERS(19)02 Hours on payslips

 

Historic uplift amounts of the nationally negotiated pay spine 
Month Year Uplift Notes
August 2005 3%  
August 2006 3% or £515, whichever is greater
February 2007 1%  
August 2007 3%  
May 2008 3% or £240, whichever is greater
October 2008 5% or 2.5% or RPO whichever is greater
August 2009 0.5%  
August 2010 0.4%  
August 2011 £150  
August 2012 1%  
August 2013 1%  
August 2014 2%  
August 2015 1% up to 2.65% on points 1-8
August 2016 1.1% up to 2% on points 1-3
August 2017 1.7% up to 2.24% on points 1-12
August 2018 2% up to 2.55% on points 1-10
August 2019 1.8% up to 3.53% on points 1-11
August 2020 0% Living Wage point implemented at Oxford
August 2021 1.5% up to 2.45% on points 11-21
August 2022 3% up to 5.5% on points 11-19
February 2023 £1,000 2% on points 42-55
August 2023 5% top up from Feb to 5% above spine point 26 (up to 8% below this)
August 2024 TBC  

 

Earlier circulars

If you need a copy of an earlier circular copies can be requested from reward@admin.ox.ac.uk

Related links