'Nurses are well paid for the job'

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

An MP said this today, in responce to the debate surrounding the 1% pay rise. Im a nurse, and I know what I think (that the pay is ok, not terrible but not fantastic), im really interested to know what others think?

DS2 is an NHS nurse. He qualified in Sept 2018 and has just started a Band 6 job, so is earning over £30k now. His girlfriend is a Band 5 nurse who qualified at the same time. They are 24 & 25 and bought a 3 bed detached house in September last year. As a couple they’re most definitely not poor.

@TheFairyCaravan somewhat disingenuous. Probably living in london. To get a band 6 2 1/2 years post qualifying is very unusual and in no way reflects most nurses' experiences. Most nurses are stuck in band 5, there just aren't enough band 6 posts for everyone. Once you reach top of your band, that's it.

Actually men seem to progress quicker in nursing than women.....but thats an entirely different thread

[quote Schonerlebnis]@TheFairyCaravan somewhat disingenuous. Probably living in london. To get a band 6 2 1/2 years post qualifying is very unusual and in no way reflects most nurses' experiences. Most nurses are stuck in band 5, there just aren't enough band 6 posts for everyone. Once you reach top of your band, that's it.[/quote]
The fact that they've just bought a 3 bed detached house in their mid 20s on two nurses salaries indicates that they're not in London.

However, it illustrates the difference that salaries make across the country. If they're in or around a city in northern England, Wales, or most of Scotland, their household income will make them comparatively well off, especially at their age, thus illustrated by their house purchase.

However, if they lived in London, they'd probably be sharing a room in a shared house or maybe living in a 1 bed flat in a undesirable area, but with rent higher than the mortgage that they're paying elsewhere.

[quote Schonerlebnis]@TheFairyCaravan somewhat disingenuous. Probably living in london. To get a band 6 2 1/2 years post qualifying is very unusual and in no way reflects most nurses' experiences. Most nurses are stuck in band 5, there just aren't enough band 6 posts for everyone. Once you reach top of your band, that's it.[/quote]
How is it disingenuous? He saw that there was a post advertised, it pricked his interest, applied and interviewed like everyone else and was successful.

He doesn’t live in London, didn’t train in London and has never worked in London.

@Letsallscreamatthesistene

Actually men seem to progress quicker in nursing than women.....but thats an entirely different thread

Glass escalator 😬😬😬

Absolutely agree re men progressing more rapidly. I’ve witnessed several male nurses who’ve been promoted way beyond their experience and out of their depth but they talk the talk. Hence mistakes made as they just didn’t have that bank of experience.
@TheFairyCaravan Sorry but a charge nurse post after 2 and a bit years of experience is unusual. Love to know what speciality it was..... I know loads of decent icu nurses with 5 or 6 years of experience and the posts aren’t there. At one point we didn’t have a band 6 post come up for 9 years and we are a reasonably sized ICU.

There are thousands of nursing vacancies in the NHS. But because NHS trusts trawl the globe to recruit nurses willing to come here and work for the pay offered, pay and conditions for nurses are never likely to substantially improve.

I'm a nurse and I have to agree, I've never felt particularly hard done to in the pay department. Managed to buy a small house on my own and run a car and feed myself. I too cringe when I hear of stories of nurses off to the food bank. It might not be the greatest wage, but I don't know how we can plead 24-30k isn't a living wage.

Realistically, none of us went into the job thinking we would be loaded in a few years time. I actually feel incredibly lucky to work in a profession where I've got a stable income, no worries about being furloughed/redundancy, opportunity to progress up the ladder, there are so many different areas and specialities of nursing to try. There's always been the opportunity to work overtime or bank if we want to which I've found to be very well paid when I've been saving for things.

Unfortunately the country is broke, the government have paid lots of people's wages for an entire year (unavoidably) and its time to crack on and be thankful for what we've got instead of winding ourselves up about pay rises.

@TheFairyCaravan, your son’s experience is not representative of most nurses. I agree that men progress much quicker than women, there are multiple contributory factors to this including how boys and girls are socialised, how society sees ambition in men and women and systemic factors within the recruitment process. Interesting how many senior jobs in nursing are held by men when men make up a tiny percentage of the nursing workforce.

If there’s no money why have we just given further billions to track and trace which hasn’t done its job and a rise of 12.5% to hmrc and similar to MPs? Why suspend stamp duty? Not to mention talk of brexit ‘celebrations’ and all the other many things that have money thrown at them. How much did the banks pay back after the crisis? Why did the burden fall on NHS staff to pay that back?

Interesting how many senior jobs in nursing are held by men when men make up a tiny percentage of the nursing workforce.

THIS. 100000000%.

Tbh I earn 2k per month as a nurse mon to fri I wouldn't say I'm poorly paid. I work in outpatients

I’m pretty sure in Canada the starting salary for registered nurses is closer to 35k GBP. 24k sounds exceptionally low.

Public sector workers tend to be paid better in other Western / developed countries. The UK is a low wage society in general. And on MN there is often a weird "race to the bottom" mentality- if one group is poorly paid, then everyone should be poorly paid! Nurses are most definitely not paid enough for what they do.

@BuggerBognor

It’s pointless to compare other countries in the main - DH was offered casino money to go to a remote part of Canada as an oncologist, but there are lifestyle issues apart from base salary. Every profession is generally paid more in NAM and Canada so it’s not just a case of ratcheting nurses up.

Also, pointless to compare salary without benefits (particularly pension benefits).

Yes average salary in the US for my profession is more than twice what it is in the UK. Less responsibility too. Personally I take it as a warning of what private healthcare would bring. Instead of propping up private businesses, some of which weren’t viable before covid, some of who have claimed fraudulently, some of who have ‘bent the rules’, some of who have made increased profits we could have put money into the NHS to increase capacity. We could put money into schools to make them safer and keep them open. It’s an ideological stance.

@teezletangler

I’m pretty sure in Canada the starting salary for registered nurses is closer to 35k GBP. 24k sounds exceptionally low.

Public sector workers tend to be paid better in other Western / developed countries. The UK is a low wage society in general. And on MN there is often a weird "race to the bottom" mentality- if one group is poorly paid, then everyone should be poorly paid! Nurses are most definitely not paid enough for what they do.

Yes! Why should people be competing over the lowest wage rather than ‘actually I work bloody hard, I shouldn’t be scrimping to pay my mortgage/have a few luxuries’

I'm a nurse for the HSE in Ireland, 3 years qualified earning €43000 basic and an extra €12000 or so a year in weekend and nighttime premiums which brings it up to roughly €55000.

The basic starting salary as a newly registered nurse on a hospital ward here is around €32500, rising to €35700 after the first 12 weeks. People here complain about how wages all the time but I'm happy with them.

NHS nurses are terribly paid, I honestly think its unbelievable how badly they are treated. How anyone can think they don't deserve more for the responsibility they have is beyond me.

@BuggerBognor

That’s a bit simplistic: yes, furlough is propping up unviable businesses, but the alternative would have created an economic crisis (which we’ve probably only postponed, rather than avoided, because people are being artificially employed in businesses that will fold as soon as the money tap is turned off). Spaffing money at the public sector would have achieved the square root of sod all, economically.

We’ve seen so often when there is an increase in health spending, it’s creamed off in huge pay rises by the staff (pleading “historic underpayment”) and makes zero difference to patient care. The same kind of tone deafness and economic ignorance that made the union ask for a 12.5% (pensionable) pay rise.

I think you’re going to have to provide some evidence of the ‘huge pay rises’? Whilst those on high incomes might like to get rid of universal free health care, it’s really not what the majority of the country want as they would be worse off. Those on high wages may just have to redistribute their wealth a tiny bit.

@Letsallscreamatthesistene

Actually men seem to progress quicker in nursing than women.....but thats an entirely different thread

Same in most professions I think and you see it quite clearly in professions where men are a minority e.g. primary teaching.

"It’s still a DB scheme. It’s still worlds better than the kind of DC schemes most people can access. "

Can you say this in English?

@Onandoff

Gwenhwyfar of course it doesn’t matter. For example most of the London public get fed up with tube workers constantly striking. They provide a necessary service and so consequently they tend to get what they want.

If nurses did the same it would be much more serious as without their labour people would die. The government would have no alternative but to give them what they wanted as there are not others able to do their jobs. The government are at risk of pushing them to take this kind of action. It will end badly for...the government.

The fact that strikes work (at least sometimes) doesn't invalidate my assertion that public opinion matters to politicians.

To correct something said above, these days nurses are required to have a degree.