Working at the level above: university promotion policies as a tool for wage theft and underpayment

Higher education has a strong relationship with wage theft, which has been examined throughout years of research, reports, and government enquiries. This paper examines the practices of wage theft that often surround academic promotions, and specifically, the common requirement that someone must already be working at the level for which they are hoping to be promoted. The work uses Australia’s higher education sector as an example, as Australia’s employment and promotion conditions are similar in many aspects to other higher education sectors. The paper provides an analysis of the promotion expectations to which academics are subjected to understand what tasks academics are expected to complete, and for how long, without being paid, before they can apply for promotion. The paper demonstrates to academics, policymakers, and unions, yet another exploitative practice that must be monitored and removed from the modern university as the sector looks to engage more equitable practices.