£6.31 an hour

The national minimum wage is £6.31 an hour. That’s what is offered for a graduate trainee job advertised in CILIP’s Lisjobnet, placed by Florida State University. By contrast, where I work, outside London, a notice on a board outside the library offers students £8 an hour for causal work. Is this what we think new entrants to the profession are worth? 

We have let this happen. New entrants to the profession are advised to take unpaid internships, zero-hours contracts, or to work as volunteers to gain experience. It’s time we took a stronger position on this, and refusing to run such advertisements on our website would be a start. 

One of the problems with this election is that there are no candidates from the younger sections of the profession. Indeed, there were hints dropped at the hustings that, instead of democratic elections, the Governance Review, if its proposals ever see the light of day, will systematically exclude less senior professionals from even standing for election, through turning us into a gerontocracy