To think the government should subside the wages of nursery/preschool staff?

[Bumpitybumper]

I am absolutely shocked about how badly nursery and preschool workers are paid and really feel that the government should intervene in this area in order to raise standards and make these jobs more desirable for talented, motivated individuals.

The current system just doesn't seem to work as SAHPs are the minority as more people need or choose to work. This obviously creates increasing demand for childcare places and therefore staff but these positions are poorly paid, under valued and lack career progression. Most parents either can't afford to pay higher fees and fund higher wages or don't want to as they want to turn a "profit" from working even if they are in relatively low/averagely paid jobs.

I think if most parents were honest we would hope and expect the staff at our childcare providers to be motivated and diligent but if we had adult children with these traits I think we would be encouraging them to enter other professions with more opportunities and better pay. Surely we therefore realistically are looking at a situation where the majority of childcare workers will be those who are lacking skills and motivation and have no better opportunities (and as almost every other field pays more for a comparative level of responsibility there are a lot of "better" opportunities out there).

This seems madness when the vast majority of parents would rank their children as the most important people in their lives and would recognise that their care in the formative years is really important. AIBU unreasonable to think the government must step in here?

Whilst I agree with you where would the money come from. Schools are having their budgets slashed all over the place.

The money doesn’t exist

I’m 40, with 15 years nursery experience and a degree in early years. I’m on minimum wage

It does subsidise them via the 30 hours a week. The problem is that they are part of a growing group of people on subsistence wages. We need a living wage rate.

I think there are lots of jobs where people should be paid more for the skills and responsibility involved. I don't agree that someone doing those jobs is automatically lacking in skills and motivation.

my current job in a nursery is one of the best in town. 10 a n hour but split over the year soninget paid in the term time to.

nursery arnt there to make a huge profit, they barely scrape by in my experience.

it does sometimes baffle me that people are willing to leave their pride and you with some one buy yet don't think think think they should be paid a decent amount.

YANBU to think nursery staff should be paid more, although they’re certainly not the only low paid yet vital to society job

The government already subsidise childcare with funded hours, which reduces the cost to parents. Yes there are huge problems with the scheme as childcare providers are paid less than the going rate but aren’t allowed to charge top ups, which leads to some rather creative billing practices!

I would support that scheme to be expanded and improved.

But if the government announced they were subsidising all childcare, for example £1 per hour per child, parents would expect to see that deducted from their bill, not that it was used to give a pay rise to the minimum wage staff who look after their children.

I would assume the money would have to come from an increase in tax. I would support a similar thing for carers

We just seem so muddled up with our priorities as a society. We entrust our vulnerable loved ones to underpaid and undervalued staff but I'm not sure if many people could think of lots of things more important that we should be spending our money on. Excellent care should be a priority

The government do step in with the tax credit system for low paid jobs of any description, however I agree with you. I also think elderly and disabled care services should be better paid, I think these services should not be run as a business, fees should cover what it actually costs, workers paid fairly and any left over put back into the place so no one gets a profit.

They earn min wage the same as a lot of other people.
The gov do subsidise low paid workers as it is, they just don't discriminate on job title.

While I agree, op, that the pay is shockingly low, there are so many things that need to be paid out of an increase in taxes. And they can't or don't ring fence tax revenue for stuff like this. Or anything, frankly.

I hear what people are saying about other minimum wage jobs however I would argue most other low paid jobs don't have the level of qualifications and responsibility that a preschool teacher would have. This job doesn't really seem to be paid at a market rate as someone who had the capability to do that kind of job well would normally be sought after by lots of industries so therefore pay would be higher.

It's because hypothecated taxes tie the hands of governments aparently. We are allowing an awful lot of corporation tax to go uncollected in this country. Perhaps it is time to call it in.

I've seen a difference between pre school and nursery staff. My dc go to pre school and the staff are generally aged 30+ with dc of their own, several have been SAHMs, most have a degree and all have child care qualifications. Most of my friends dc go to nursery all day the staff there seem to be much younger, with childcare qualifications and are yet to have dc of their own. I'm guessing the pre school staff tolerate the low pay because it's a term time job that they can start at 9 and finish at 3 so can save a lot of cash in childcare costs themselves.

I think it would be great to pay nursery staff more but I don't know what I would cut to pay for it. I was chatting to a friend the other day and she was lamenting the cost of child care but did say 'nursery is now £48 a day but to be fair I pay the person who looks after my hair more an hour than the person who looks after my dc', which did feel odd.

Thing is it would automatically mean that all private nursery’s would cut everyone’s pay to minimum knowing the Government will intervene to pick up the rest of the bill.
The rich will get richer.....(as has happened with the Tax Credit system - all the jobs I can apply for are lower paid as the company bosses know people get tax credits, reasonable past only kicks in once youvare over the threshold in my experience)

I would support paying higher tax to raise standards in education and childcare by paying staff more, to recruit and retain good staff.

Investing in the education and wellbeing of young children will reap rewards for UK when they are adults. Also will enable mums to return to workplace and build successful careers (and paying more tax and building pension).

Several other European countries manage to heavily subsidise childcare and see it as a worthwhile use if taxpayers money.

OP are you talking about qualified teachers or nursery staff? They aren't the same in terms of qualifications. Many nursery staff are young people still taking their qualifications and they are usually at nvq level 2 or 3 not degree level.

If you want childcare staff to be better paid, then pay more for your childcare. The government (other tax payers!) isn’t responsible for your choice to have children.

@Hopoindown31
Qualifications was regarding preschool staff specifically

@AnnieAnoniMoose
Would you support all teachers being paid minimum wage then and being topped up by parents? Do you not see a benefit to society of having reasonably well paid people in positions that could massively influence the next generation?

I don't understand - perhaps someone who works in a nursery can explain this to me:

My local nursery is charging me £1700 per month for 3 days a week. Its a 1:3 staff:kid ratio at the younger ages. And at 5 days a week, it's £7500 per month from the 3 kids. Why can't they pay their staff a decent wage from this? Surely the rent for the premise can't be that much! Not to mention when the kids are 3 it's a 1:8 ratio but the fees only drop about £150 pm.

I know my nursery is on the expensive side but still. Is it just a case that the owners are keeping massive profits and not paying their staff? Where else does the money go - food, rent, toys, staff wages... am I missing something big?

We are allowing an awful lot of corporation tax to go uncollected in this country.

We are not allowing corporation tax to go uncollected, the tax laws need to change to reflect the globalised world and needs to be done in conjunction with other countries. It is far more nuanced than us allowing anything.

As an aside, since the Tories introduced new rules we hit an all time high in corporation tax, i think up ~10bn

The about the government pay per hour for the free childcare parents receive is so low it's ridiculous. Now there is 30 hours funding available it is even worse. If parents only used the free hours then preschools would not be able to stay open, the only way it works is that parents often use additional hours, or the 2 year olds pay more. It really is awful.

It's not about paying more for the childcare, it's that the government insist on the free hours being available but the amount they pay is not enough.

rent, electricit, gas, water, wages, resources, food, toys, maintenance. phone calls. cleaning products. advertising.

don't forget not all parents pay on time as well.

The manager of my dcs pre school holds a degree in early years education but the rest of the staff have degrees in unrelated subjects and nvq levels in childcare. As I said in my pp I strongly suspect they are attracted by the hours- if you have 2 dc in school wrap around care are our local school it will cost you £34 a day, so they can 'add' £170 a week on to their wages during term time, nearer £320 during the holidays.

@SilentEm564 Where is your nursery? What sort of premises does it operate out of? Is it one room in a village hall or several rooms in its own premises?