I know my posts are almost always about money so at the risk of sounding even more vulgar: how much money do academics generally earn? It's something I've genuinely never thought of before. My subject is in the Humanities, and I'm just wondering how much junior lecturer/senior lecturer/prof. earn? Or is it completely varied depending on subject/university/country etc?

If you look at the jobs offered in the Guardian higher education supplement they usually mention salaries - from what I can remember it starts at about 30k for a lecturing post to around 50k for principal lecturer. Professor is about 70k+ I think. They are really rough estimates though, and theres probably a lot of variation - I don't think its too bad though!

Thank God. Debt debt DEBT M,x

In the UK there's a national pay scale. Natassia's about right although senior lecturers earn a bit less, and a lot of professors are on more like 56- 60k. It's only the superstars that get the 70-80k salaries i.e. the sorts of people who universities abroad would be keen to poach. Most European countries are similar but often lecturer equivalents get paid a lot less than in the UK. In the US it varies drastically from institution to institution and from subject to subject. Some earn really well, others very badly.
But remember the pay is only good for those with fulltime permanent contracts. A scary amount of teaching is delivered by part-timers who are often on pretty awful hourly pay.

Although there is indeed a national pay scale, with the lowest-paid 'permanent' positions starting somewhere around 30,000 pounds p/a, contracts for junior research fellows can vary, I think. At Oxford or Cambridge, for example, an annual salary for a JRfellow might only be about 14-18,000 pa, but the addition of book allowances, accomodation stipend, dining rights etc. actually bumps it up to a package worth about 25,000.

Per-hour teaching can start from about 12 pounds (that's what my institution pay postgraduate TAs) to 30-40 pounds.

Remember that is usually less for postdoc positions, which is what the majority of PhD graduates will go onto if they stay in academia. Permanent posts are highly competed for and usually go to people who have been around a little while already.

In my field (psychology) postdocs usually start at about £25k and end at about £30ish. The problem is that many are fixed, so you never really get high enough on the salary range before your contract ends. You then have to negotiate a fresh salary when you are on your next post doc contract, and that tends to be lower on whatever salary range your new job has.

Remember that a lot of institutions allow their academic staff to top-up their salaries by performing consultancy/commercial work for external organisations. This can range from £500-£1250 per day depending on your reputation and the type of partner you are working for. Most institutions allow you to undertake between 20-30 days of this activity per year. Depending on your field, you can also earn royalties from patents that have been sold to industry, sales of books etc.

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Yep, Natassia is quite right. Current scales suggest post-doc research assistant work, outside of London, earns between 26-32k, lecturer B positions earn from 33k upwards and Senior lecturers earn from 38k. Professorial salaries are usually not published because there is SO much variation between age, gender, experience, but in the Arts they start at 60k and can go up to 120k. The most senior medics draw salaries of up to 250k. Within London the salaries are, on average, a good 5k higher.