to think that as an experienced midwife I should earn more than a window cleaner?

[whatinthewhatnow]

My mum's window cleaner charges £18 for an hour's work. I get £17. Does society really value window cleaners more than midwives?

In no way showing off, and this rarely happens, but I did dramatically save a teeny life on wednesday. It was really fricking scary. I work so hard, my women seem to really like me and I really do try so hard for them. I feel totally undervalued and stressed and I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it, for £17 a bloody hour. FFS. .

Sorry benedict I didn't mean for it to come across as you had said it. Although reading it back I can see it does read that way.
I was referring to your no need comment. I agree there was no need, but there is no need for the OPs attitude either. That's what I meant.
Surely if you can hand it out you can take it.
I think the OP should quit, invest in a window cleaning round and see how much better of she isn't.

It's not really society though is it? You're a public employee with fixed rates of pay. He's a private self employed person who can charge what people are prepared to pay. In a recession, he probably does really badly and when people are feeling flush, much better.

We pay our window cleaner £10, there are two of them and they do my house (3 bed semi) in about 10 mins. We live in a small country town, and my house is in a new estate, so I imagine they have a fair amount of business around here. Not bad money really, is it!

Btw I do think uabu to think anyone should get more or less than anyone else. Life just isn't like that.

Are midwives underpaid - that's a huge political and social question and overall I'd say yes. The annual leave is good when bank holidays are factored in. Swings and roundabouts.

The upshot is that stress cannot be measured as a commodity. So the job will never be realistically measured.

DanteV it's ok, I just get defensive when folks say a monkey could do my job, which is what Sancerriety was implying.

I would get defensive too. In fact i do.
That's what annoys me about the OP. When she has ran her own business with all the variables that come with it, then she may have a point. But st the moment she is looking at someone else and assuming they are better off and then assuming they don't work as hard and looks down on them.
When me and dh go away, we have to save our holiday money (travel and spend) and we also save the money we would have profit those weeks so its not as much of a hit. And we only have 2 weeks annual leave a year.

Historically around 1:100 women died in childbirth so i think its a little insulting to suggest that midwives are not skilled workers (though appreciate the improvements are due to medical as well as midwifery care).

Why should anyone get paid more than anyone else?

I don't agree and why should the window cleaner earn less than a midwife?

We are all a chain and we are all important - it is just that some manage to convince others they are worth more pay.

In a hotel a kitchen porter is at important as the chef - if they are no clean plates to serve the food on then the food will not get to the customer, likewise the waiting staff - no good having lovely food on a clean plate stuck n the kitchen. The same applies t the chamber maids and check in staff, no one wants a dirty room after seeing a lovely check in staff book them in.

I work in the NHS - frontline, patient contact, lone working etc etc

I am sorry to say that there is a terrible work ethic in many parts of the NHS as we are so poorly managed. I have colleagues who take the mickey with their time keeping and standards and management just say 'if I haven't seen it myself I can't do anything'.

My salary is similar to OP (Band 7) approx £18.50 per hour - I actually left my previous post as I thought it was such a waste of NHS money! I wrote to the SHA and they didn't fill the post when I left - I felt compelled to do this as I didn't want the post to be given to someone who would just turn up and bank the money like my colleagues did when I knew that it was just a waste.

I also work in the private sector where my hourly rate is up to 4 times what I get in the NHS but as others have pointed out by the time I have covered my AL, sickness, pension, insurance, training, admin time etc it isn't a massive amount more - I do it because I cannot face full time NHS work as the politics drives me mad!

But if people don't get paid more for doing certain jobs then it's going to very difficult to recruit people to certain roles.

Surely?

I make no bones about the fact that I work for the wage - as much as I enjoy helping women bring their families into the world I can't apologise for really wanting to be at home with my own. Especially at Christmas, easter, school holidays, weekends and bedtime. A.significant majority of which I miss.

That is the job I signed up for, totally un family friendly. At the time I was 18 and had never heard the phrase family. so yes, the wage is very important my eyes.

I have slight envy for self employed friends who seem able to have most public holidays off, but I haven't the skills or nerve they have-to go into business alone.

Which roles are these NHS ones where poor time keeping/low work rates are tolerated? No delivery suite I have ever been on!

I can't even think of a shift where someone has been late, we all know that if you don't turn up then the other shift can't leave. So you get there come hell or high water.

There are some injustices though.
My late mother spent the last month of her life in a nursing home.
The kindness, professionalism and care they showed her was something I'll never forget.
Some of them were on minimum wage.

a cleaner now charges around 12 ph.

Mostly community services tree but I've also come across some amazing time wasting opportunities when I've worked in acute hospitals! I haven't worked directly in midwifery although they came under my remit in my previous post.

I'm a public sector worker and proud to be so. I support all public sector staff. However, whilst on maternity leave I've met a couple of NHS workers whose benefits are amazing. They actually make extra money on top of their usual salary whilst on maternity leave. They will happily admit that the NHS is a damn good employer (and they work in completely different parts of it to each other). Good luck to the window cleaner who earns £18 per hour and more fool those who pay him that much.

yanbu op

and window cleaners deal in alot of cash

just saying

If we are so much as twenty minutes late through genuine issues then we are made to make the time up. However it does not work both ways. As I say I ended up staying back an hour this morning to finish up notes from deliveries that had happened hours before because as soon as I poked my head out of one room I had another established labourer plonked in my lap. I worked 13 hours straight with no break, I managed a wee before I left work and it was like lucozade I was that dehydrated. Of the 13 hours I worked I was paid for 11 of them. At a lot less than 18 quid per hour.

why is there so little understanding of why self employed people earn more ph in MN?

I am a journo and earn about £13 an hour. If I were to be self employed some days I would earn 4-5 times that. But I have chosen paye, a pension and 25 days holiday a year.

Maybe a career change is in order then OP, sounds like a few weeks self-employed cleaning work would give you a whole new perspective on life, obviously it's marvellous and your mum's window cleaner is swimming in it. In fact, I bet he's bathing in Cristal RIGHT NOW. With Kate Moss and Gisele. The Absolute Bastard.

I really resent not being able to wee or poo when I need to. Of all the things that bother me that's one of the biggest.

The absolute biggest is working in hot hot temperatures in such warm impractical uniform. It's insulting. Our delivery rooms can hit 26 degrees and our uniforms won't allow me to even bend properly.

So insulting.

In a hotel a kitchen porter is at important as the chef

maybe in your eyes but certainly not in real life

no the kp is not seen as as important as the chef,the difference in pay and benefits reflects this,and as for the attitude regarding the bottom to the top its awful

i have worked in this industry for many years

I haven't read the message to the end but I make certain that my window cleaner charges £12 for n outside clean. I have a four bedroomed house with eight sets of windows plus double patio doors. And he wipes down window sills where his water had dripped to.

And he cleared out the gutters of moss etc last winter at no extra charge.

I'm a midwife. Ten years ago I used to clear blocked sewers for a living and I earnt nearly double then what I earn now. And that's after ten years inflation!

I wasn't self employed as a sewer rat either, worked for the water board with a nice final salary pension scheme, etc.