(Photograph) - Porterhouse blues: Porters in traditional universities earn an average of Pounds 7,613 a year, despite working for some of the richest universities in the world. They would do better to move to a new university where they could earn up to Pounds 700 more. The average salary for manual workers in both old and new universities is Pounds 7,980. These salaries are the lowest in the university sector, falling well below the Council of Europe's recommended decency threshold of Pounds 12,500.