The BBC salaries report has prompted me to do something that I've had in mind for quite some time.

So here it is: my salary is ?48,327.

I am 42, and have had a full-time academic job since 2008, when I was 32. Before that, I took a long time to do a master¡¯s and a PhD, and taught as an hourly paid lecturer in six different subject areas for eight years. When things were tough, I did some supply teaching, which is why I admire teachers so much and feel so guilty about my behaviour in school. Well, some of it anyway. I also had a ?6,000 annual scholarship to do my PhD.

If you think 32 is late, the generations of academics behind me have it far worse. Being on a selection panel for an entry-level lecturing job was shaming: every single applicant had achieved more in terms of research, while doing huge amounts of teaching, while never?having had a full-time job, a permanent job, or even a full-year job.

Salaries are not as transparent as they look either. Some academics negotiate, while others aren¡¯t aware that it¡¯s possible, and there are ethnic and gendered aspects to this. I was once sitting next to a colleague who was offered a proper contract after working with us for years. To his enormous credit, the associate dean on the end of the phone talked her into accepting a higher salary than was technically on offer.

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I was also lucky. I¡¯d taught for years in so many areas before the possibility of a part-time job came up that I quaveringly asked whether my length of service might justify making me a senior lecturer, and the panel agreed. I doubt that this would ever happen now.

How do I feel about my salary? I feel rich. The average UK salary last year was ?27,600. I live in a very poor area, so the gap is far wider. I have benefited from being middle class, white and male: lacking any one of these characteristics would result in a sharp drop: lacking all three dramatically reduces earning potential.

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I do have other feelings about my salary, and they¡¯re mostly comparative. I work in a sector where managements work very hard to make sure that academic salaries fall behind while their own converge with industry. That annoys me.

I feel that the long years of earning little or nothing and having no job security simply to acquire the qualifications and experience needed should be reflected in academic salaries.

I¡¯m also aware that this is my peak salary: the elevator stopped long ago, and insecurity is once more afoot.

I work hard to remind myself that my salary is way in excess of my neighbours and what most of my students will get, and that I don¡¯t even have a family to support. I mitigate the guilt by happily paying every tax that I can, and by making sure that those earning less than me never buy the coffees: that¡¯s how it was when I had no money, and I¡¯m just passing it on.

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I also feel that I work hard for my salary. I have contracted hours, and they¡¯re officially exceeded by a significant amount every year, and unofficially exceeded by even more. Then there¡¯s the emotional labour involved in this kind of work: we don¡¯t just teach and write, we provide intellectual, cultural and emotional support to students and colleagues in ways that can¡¯t be quantified. The strong bonds between us means that there¡¯s a culture of overwork that is never acknowledged.

It¡¯s true, however, that within a neoliberalised social system, being a lecturer in English literature and a researcher in Welsh literature is a luxury good. It shouldn¡¯t be, but it is.

So there we are. That¡¯s what I earn. I¡¯m lucky to work in a sector with a national pay bargaining unit, and resigned to the ever-widening gap between my colleagues and our overseers.

I¡¯m conscious of the class, racial and gender bonus included in my salary. I don¡¯t aspire to riches, simply to security. I spend my money on books and train travel, and lust over that I¡¯ll never be able to afford. I¡¯d happily pay more tax and see a more level salary landscape, but I also think that there are a lot of people taking home a lot more tax for doing less useful work.

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This is an edited version of a blog that first appeared on the personal website of the a senior lecturer at a English university who blogs anonymously about university life.