A university lecturer with a four-year degree earns about the same as a Johannesburg Metro bus driver, while a plumber or welder earns substantially more.
Academics are earning as little as R5 727 a month at some tertiary institutions in South Africa, while the average take-home pay for junior lecturers is R7 500, according to a survey of 50 institutions in six countries conducted by the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
The average lecturer, after studying for a four-year degree, gets R7 571 as a junior academic in South Africa, while a bus driver with matric (although Grade 10 is acceptable) need only a public driving permit and a Code 14 license to qualify for a basic salary of R7 000 a month with Johannesburg Metro. Plumbers, fitters, welders and other artisans earn more than lecturers with salaries ranging from R12 500 to R20 833 a month.
The study said South African lecturers got below average salaries while counterparts in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom received above average remuneration.
The information was supplied to the Commonwealth body by the now defunct South African Vice-Chancellors Association (Sauvca). The survey found academics in Malaysia and New Zealand also received below average pay.
On Friday, Higher Education South Africa (Hesa), the body which replaced Sauvca, was unable to provide the latest salary details of South Africa's poorly-paid academics saying it was something it was concerned about and planned to investigate.
The ACC report, which credits Sauvca for the data, paints a picture of inequality in respect of junior lecturer, lecturer and senior lecturer salaries.
The average starting salary for a junior academic at the bottom of the scale in South Africa, according to the survey, was R7 571, amounting to almost R91 000 a year, while the middle average was R9 463 a month (R113 559) and top of the scale at R12 681 a month (R152 176 a year). A lecturer received R10 190 a month; mid-level earned R13 114 while academics at the top earned R16 503.
A senior lecturer started at R12 254, earned R15 656 at mid-level and received R21 120 at the top of the scale.
The report said Australian academics fared better than their Commonwealth colleagues; Canada has the highest starting salary for lecturers; while Malaysia, followed by South Africa, has the highest earning in comparison with national per capita gross domestic product.
Overall, in the comparison between the six nations, the salaries of academics in South Africa ranked fifth, followed by Malaysia. Academics in Malaysia on average earned thousands less than South African lecturers.
The report found salaries among South African institutions highly differentiated, for example, an associate lecturer at North West University received R68 000 a year, compared with R83 430 at the Free State, R94 620 at Western Cape and R116 652 at Stellenbosch. The average pay of professors in the country varied from R246 382 to R320 658.
Bruce Smith, the Director of Human Resources at Rhodes University, said starting salaries were based on qualifications and experience.
A junior lecturer at Rhodes gets R102 360 to R127 548; lecturer: R127 548 to R185 880; and a senior lecturer: R171 08 to R215 000. The package would go up by as much as 30% with pension, medical aid, housing and other benefits.
Universities pay what they can afford. State subsidies have declined over the years and there is a limit to how much fees can be increased, he said.
Smith said one of the perks of academia was the long leave.
The pay of academics come amid findings by a Hesa investigation which found that vice- chancellors and senior management received fat-cat salaries - R950 000 to R3,2-million for varsity heads and R480 000 to R900 000 for senior managers.
Critics said the country's tertiary bosses, with Aaron Ndlovu, the Vice-Chancellor of Mangosuthu Technikon receiving R3,2-million a year, were grossly overpaid and did little to boost pay at the lower rungs. The Hesa study on vice-chancellor salaries said remuneration of academics was poor.
Union leaders, including Patrick Craven, the spokesman for Cosatu, expressed concern at the low salaries paid to skilled labour, such as nurses, medical staff and academics, while at the top end, fat-cats were paid excessively well.
Jaco Kleynhans, the spokesperson for Solidarity, the trade union, said lecturers received a pittance compared with university bosses and senior managers.
It is a worry they are paid so low, many may leave for the private sector where the salaries are much better, he said.
Andre Barkhay, the spokesperson for the National Union of Tertiary Employees of South Africa, said lecturers were grossly underpaid, and salaries had not kept pace with developments, such as the mergers at tertiary institutions.
In the UK, university top brass are often, like many of their South African counterparts, handsomely rewarded. According to the Times Higher Education Supplement, 18 vice-chancellors earn more than £200 000 (about R2 million) a year - more than Tony Blair, the prime minister who gets £169 000 (about R1.69 million).
Academic unions in Britain criticised vice-chancellors in March saying that their remuneration and increases should be transparent.