A Varsity investigation has found dramatic discrepancies in wages paid to students working in Cambridge’s studentrun bars. Those who work in the bars at Emmanuel and Newnham are the worst paid, with both receiving pay below the National Minimum Wage.

Student workers at the Emmanuel bar receive £3.63 per hour for four-hour shifts and £3.67 per hour for three-hour shifts. The national minimum wage for 18 to 20-year-olds is £5.60 per hour.

At Newnham, students at the College’s bar receive just £2.50 in Sainsbury’s vouchers per hour worked. However, its bar is not funded by the College, is run only by students and for students, and pay is set by the Student Bar Committee.

Emmanuel students are paid for working at the bar and thus they qualify as workers entitled to the minimum wage under law. Although they do receive a £5 bar tab per shift alongside their pay, non-cash benefits do not legally count towards a worker’s hourly rate.

One student expressed reluctance in approaching the College about wages as he feared that the bar would stop paying students entirely and operate on a volunteer basis. “I’m thankful for any cash coming in”, he said.

Another student bartender feared that complaints would encourage a switch to a staff-run system or raise prices. He expressed a fear of social ostracism if the proposed wage changes affected the “friendly vibe” and “cheap prices”.

“I don’t think that it would be fair to other members of college if prices went up or it was no longer student-run,” he continued, noting that keeping the bar student-run “should be a priority”.

Speaking to Varsity, Emma’s JCR president, Katie Nelson, said that she had looked into the issue, but explained: “there are difficulties because Emmanuel is one of very few student-run bars remaining in Cambridge, and there are worries among students that this may change if there are demands for wages to be increased, particularly as the bar already makes an annual loss.”

Speaking in a personal capacity, she added that “wages set below minimum wage are unacceptable and set a bad precedent for the College”.

One bar worker at Newnham described the bar as being open “very, very irregularly”, which she felt could be explained by the pay being “too low” to attract workers. She also linked it to the work being “boring” as few students visit the bar due to opening times not being publicised.

In a statement, Newnham JCR said: “payments in terms of Sainsbury’s vouchers is acceptable to all of us”, but acknowledged that they “do struggle to get people to sign up to work”. Newnham workers are classed as volunteers by the bar committee, meaning that they are ineligible to receive the minimum wage.

A spokesperson for the Newnham echoed this, saying that it “the College does not employ any bar staff in The Newnham Student Bar. It is managed and run by student volunteers who serve in the bar.

“The Student Bar Committee manage the bar and decide whether to reward the student volunteers (and if so, at what level) for helping to run the bar,” they continued.

This classification is tenuous, however, as it would need to be proved that the vouchers do not create a contractual relationship wherein students are undertaking work in return for the non-cash reward. In comparison, student-run bars at Clare, Wolfson, Lucy Cavendish, Sidney Sussex, and Downing all pay students at least the minimum wage. Sidney Sussex pays all students £7.50 per hour, and expects to increase its hourly wage next term to £7.90.

Similarly, Wolfson and Lucy Cavendish pay students £7.50 per hour, in keeping with the current national living wage for employees aged 25 and over. Downing, too, pays student workers above the living wage.

Clare pays students £7.05 per hour for the first seven hours of work per week and £12.78 per hour for any additional time worked. Wolfson and Clare also provide two free drinks coupons per shift. St Edmund’s is the only college with a bar that operates on a completely volunteer basis.

Emmanuel College did not respond to a request for comment.