To wonder about pay

She has no pension sick leave or holiday pay, nor pension contributions. I'm a teacher and whilst it's not well paid for the hours I do, I will have a good pension and if I ever need it, sick pay is there.

If everyone was willing to pay more tax, NHS professionals could be better paid. And people would have less money to spare for fripperies such as having nails done.

It’s deferred salary though. Public sector workers aren’t paid anything like the amount that would be paid for private sector roles with an equivalent level of responsibility. The govt gets to pay people less now by paying their pensions later on. Another way of keeping financial balls in the air I guess!

No, this is how markets work.

Doesn’t bother me at all when people in different fields earn more than I do as a doctor. It’s open to me to join them if I think it looks like a better deal!

That £58.5k is just turnover though. It’s not comparable to the salaries you’ve quoted.

You being very simplistic about this. The nail technician doesn’t earn £45 for 90 minutes.

Out of that £45 she needs to cover:
holiday pay for herself
pension contributions
equipment costs
energy costs
admin time
insurance costs
tax and NI
professional services eg an accountant
and probably a load more stuff I’ve not thought of

I also agree with others as well that the two jobs of a nail tech and junior doctor aren’t comparable. I’d also argue that the junior doctor isn’t paid great now but once they’re consultant level they’ll be on a lot more than a nail technician who has probably already met their full earning potential.

A junior doctor also gets the NHS pension which is worth a lot!

Ps i don't judge the nail technicians.

What amazes me is that there is sufficient demand for them.

Self employed people aren't the only ones to pay tax.

A nurse on a salary of £30k also pays tax! Often the tax being self employed works out lower, and public sector workers with good pensions also have large contribution taken out if their pay for them now too.

Yanbu op, people are weird who are happy to shell out these sorts of rates for something totally unnecessary but are happy for a teacher to earn 30k.

They're not comparable.
Public sector workers in front-line jobs are not paid enough, we all know that. The private sector, including small business owners like your nail technician friend, set their own prices.
Public sector workers have all the benefits mentioned up thead, plus job security, whereas private sector benefits vary, and job security, particularly for many small business owners, is often precarious.
The pandemic clearly demonstrated the differences, I bet many nail technicians went lost their jobs, while health care staff had no worries on that front.

However, the lack of interest the Government has in doing anything about financially rewarding the work many workers they employ do is disgraceful.

You’d have a point if it was the same person deciding doctors salaries and nail technicians salaries but it’s not, so it’s not really comparable is it.

Dropping like flies with the COL

I think dental nurse wages are ridiculous these days. They were never great but I was a dental nurse in 2001-2006 and was on £10 an hour. It's absolutely disgusting that the wages have barely increased since then.
I'm a hygienist now and when I qualified I was on £36 an hour. 15 years later I'm on £38 an hour. So while it's good money it's no where near as good as it was. If I wasn't so old I'd retrain and get out of dentistry.

The nail tech is being paid for her skill and experience in a market that is willing to pay for it, not just based on how long something takes. In the same way that a plumber or a gas engineer might fix your problem in 20 minutes, but you’re paying for them for the knowledge in how to address the issue you couldn’t do yourself - even if it seemed fast. And being self employed means you pay all your own overheads, put aside money for tax/pension/equipment/liability insurance etc. Its not as if she’s clearing £45 profit per 90 mins (and wholesale gel prices have gone up lately). I’m sure she is doing well, but it’s not all going in her pocket.

Even so, I think there are conversations to be had about how well or not well certain jobs are paid, but i don’t think it should be a race to the bottom of X shouldn’t be paid more than Y, more so that Y should be paid better!

Ha! DH is a Civil Servant. He pays 4.6% into his pension, his employer pays 27%.

We do, I pay £400 a month into my pension but my employer pays an awful lot more.

Plus materials

She doesn’t earn that much, that’s what she charges. She has to pay tax insurance etc and no paid holidays or sick pay or maternity leave.

Nope, they’re on defined benefit schemes where your retirement income is guaranteed. You can’t buy a private pension like that any more. I’m not sure there are any private sector employers with open DB schemes. They are generally the equivalent of C30% of salary if you could buy them.

Cleaning can be pretty backbreaking work.

£45 x 5 hours a day x 5 days a week x 52 weeks in a year = £58.5k.

That's not accounting for any days off, bank hols, sick days, pension contributions etc.
And assumes she can do 25 sets of nails per week, every week.

Also doesn't account for costs and insurance.

I’m a dental nurse in an independent practice. I saw the wage rates for one of the large corporate chains. Dental nurse £11:46 per hour. Cleaner £11:44 an hour! I’m not saying cleaners aren’t worth their weight in gold because they are but dental nurses have to train, qualify and then go on the GDC register which costs £114 pa. Then we have to do 10 hours a year CPD. It’s just not worth it for most dental nurses. Not worth the stress either.

Plus she's not guaranteed a customer every 1.5 hours.

Lots of professions/ jobs earn more than a nurse / junior doctor though. I think that your average politician is horribly overpaid for the twaddle they come out with. Same with bankers etc. Loads of essential services jobs are not so far off minimum wage.