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?

YANBU. Whilst I don’t know his keyworkers salaries , the nursery my son goes to is one of the most expensive in the area and they don’t / can’t offer 30 funded hours, only 15. We pay though because we can afford it and they do a great job.

@InDubiousBattle
But they presumably don't get paid in the holidays at all? I saw a vacancy at a preschool term time only being advertised for 12/13k. Nobody could live off this kind of wage.

I wouldn’t be happy to pay more taxes for this. If you are not happy with the quality of care provided by your nursery either find another one, become a SAHM or find a childminder or nanny.
Increasing the wages won’t automatically mean better care.

My local nursery is charging me £1700 per month for 3 days a week.

Bullshit. That’s £130 a day!

Georgie I think she has 3 at nursery

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.

Agreed. So why do you want all the non-parents to help pay for this? The non-parents already help pay towards children's schooling from 4-18.

most other low paid jobs don't have the level of qualifications and responsibility that a preschool teacher would have.

Teachers are on a completely different pay scale to other pre-school workers. Who is it you are actually talking about?

I don’t think so, she says full time is £7500 for 3?

No, but £13k a year job where you don't have to pay a penny in childcare is worth much more than that in real terms. I don't think these are the type of jobs you can live on , I think they are generally second wage to fit in around childcare and as such I'm not convinced the average tax payer would be happy at subsidising a higher hourly rate tbh. Also, as pp says I'm not sure that paying another 50p and hour would necessarily get better care for dc.

I used to worked 47.5 hours in a top day nursery and would take home £975 a month...... my husband works 30 hours a week and is on £13 an hour. I wonder if childcare was a male dominated role whether the pay would be substantially better??? But that is a question for another thread I guess!

OP

Thanks for your reply, most preschool staff are not qualified teachers so you can't compare their salaries with other teachers.

@cmlover And not forgetting insurance and DBS checks. The former isn't cheap either. You should be operating with probably £10 million liability.

I don’t think this would be a vote winner, so it will never happen.

Parents want childcare to be cheaper, they would want the government paying out that money to give them a discount-not the staff getting a pay rise.

Personally I think the whole childcare industry should be nationalised and provided on a standardised, state-led and subsidised basis.

It’s precisely why I left my nursery job. Loved the manager, loved the children and parents, but the pay was pittance, I was on minimum wage but I was constantly struggling to afford basics. Because of this nurseries had a high turn over of staff. It’s a hard job and to be earning £900 didn’t cut it (I was 23 at the time and having to pay my rent on a flat shared with friends)

@ShatnersWig it's just outside of London, a commuter area. The one that I use is quite a large nursery. 2-3 classes per age band, each class has its own room. They do provide all the food and nappies but that's just a few £ a day.

No £1700 is just for one in the lower age band and one higher (which is a bit cheaper). So 1:3 and 1:8 ratio would be about roughly £8600 per month if my maths is right? That's quite a lot - don't you think you can spare £4000 from that for wages?

@ShatnersWig
Because many parents are stretched to the limit financially and can't afford to pay more. Lots of people would not be able to pay a reasonable amount for primary or secondary school education or medical treatment but it's an expense picked up by the state as we have decided as a society that it's important enough to do so. I think this is an area that parents should still contribute significantly but the state should also contribute because it's so important.

Also out of interest, how much does nursery cost in other European countries and how much are their staff paid? Does anyone know?

I had forgot insurance and training days on safeguarding, first aid etc

though our dbs we have to pay our self's, though some nursery offer this for their staff too.

prob a lot more paperwork expenses as well

Haven't read the thread.

But basically its because its "women's work". And therefore undervalued.

Is it 12/13k pro rata, or 12/13k actual pay?

I'm in Scotland so a little bit different but pre-schools here are generally about 6 hours a day, 39 weeks a year. If it's 13k actually received over those hours then that's coming out to over £11 an hour. My experience has been that most of the staff who work in pre schools either do it to fit around their own children or work at holiday clubs/after school clubs etc so it's not their only income.

Childcare isn't a huge money earner for most companies - the expenses are really high, the income unpredictable and the admin immense.

The Govt subsides the wages through providing free hours and through the benefit system. Perhaps parents should pay fees at a level that allows the nursery/pre school to pay their workers a higher wage. Why is it always the Govt - which is really tax payers - that has to stump up the extra cash rather than asking the service users to pay an economic rate

cm lover & training ongoing & if they own rent own property there is another biggie - council tax - for commercial properties they are enormous. Teacher in nursery schools usually get 52 weeks a year salary the NVQ3 at schools tend to only get paid for term time only but that is spread over 12 monthly period they will get payment for a few weeks holidays as well. The funding from the gov for the 15/30 hours is below the economical rate

@Hopoindown31
I understand they don't necessarily have the same level of qualification as a teacher but I understand you can get some form of early years degree/qualification that essentially still only leads to a minimum wage job. I can't remember the exact name sorry

SilentEm what kind of nursery does your child attend????
One of my fulltimers invoice doesn’t ever go higher than £1200p/m and that for 8-6 Monday-Friday in a 25day month. (I invoice 27th-26th each month)