DS and DD Wage Difference Surprise

[Thatstuffedbear]

DD, 29, is a nurse, went to uni, did placements of 12 hour shifts in various hospitals as a student, all for zero pay. Fast forward and she is now a band 6 nurse on a busy nhs ward doing 13 hour day and 12 hour night shifts, often gets verbally abused by patients but loves her job.
She gets free uniform but has to pay to park. Her salary is now 28k after 7 years.

DS, 21 decided uni wasn't for him and was lucky enough to be offered an apprenticeship straight from school. Got paid from day one and will be a qualified gas engineer in the summer. He has a permanent job lined up, he has free uniform including shoes, a phone, all paid for, a van, and an allowance to buy tools. His starting salary at age 21 will be 36k.
He works 8 hour days and admits a lot of time is spent in the van drinking tea waiting for the next job.
I love both my DC equally and am so glad they are in jobs they love but AIBU to think a nurse should surely earn more than a gas engineer?

I get what you mean but it’s like comparing apples and oranges.

The professions aren’t linked but I do think nurses aren’t paid as much as they should be

Nursing pay is shockingly low imo. It is unfair, and probably the main reason that we have a shortage of nurses.

Salaries are bizarre. I'm pleased your DC both enjoy their jobs. goes off to Google gas engineer training

Your daughter would earn far more if she went into the private sector, which is essentially where your son works.

Of course it's not fair - and it's gendered. Nursing should be paid more.

Your daughter could've trained as a gas engineer too... Then she would be on equal pay.

I wont be pushing my kids in to uni or nhs field jobs. They'll be pushed into trades because that's where the money and comfortable life is at. My bathroom fitter earned £3-4k a month. My boiler guy the same. After tax. He has a 4 bedroom house with 4 acres of land and the only stress in his work life is delivering the project on time.

I know what life I'd rather have for my kids.

This isn't a girl/boy thing. Your dd could have been a gas engineer if she wanted to be, still could. She also presumably researched jobs and their pay prior to studying and chose accordingly. Yes, all that ilk, plumbers, gas engineers etc can get a great salary, but once everyone realises it, it might not be so good in ten years time. At 21, £36k is a fabulous salary.

Not necessarily Blue. I’m a teacher and I moved to the private sector because I couldn’t handle the constant interference in state education any longer. I’ve been a teacher for 30 years and I have a big pastoral responsibility. I earn less than the OPs DS will earn. Caring professions just don’t get paid well.

Your DD could earn more than she’s on at the moment surely? Being a qualified nurse doesn’t mean you have to work for the NHS, there must be private opportunities that pay more?

I think there isn't as much information as there might be given to school children about salaries and jobs. I think it's a real problem. I also think nursing is underpaid.

My salary at your DD's age (or rather, at 30) was exactly the same, 28k - that's starting salary for someone teaching at university and we'd pretty much all have done 7+ years of training and studying (undergrad, masters, PhD) before that. A difference is that, in theory, you'd hope in that line of work you'd stand to earn considerably more later on. But I still think it is something most people don't expect. Certainly I had students who imagined I must be paid much, much more than this to teach them and were quite shocked.

I keep hoping things are changing, but when I was 18 and thinking about what to do after school, the advice was so gendered. I went to a selective school and yes, we were praised for 'aiming high' intellectually (but not too high, girls, you might feel most uncomfortable at Oxbridge!). There was a sense that our 'careers' were meant to be exciting and enjoyable, which in a way is lovely, but no one ever talked about the financial side. No one ever suggested we think about how very similar paths could get us to very, very, very different financial situations in the end.

The other day I had a man come out to fix my aerial. He was here for about ten mins. The invoice was £70. Scarily, my first thought was 'phew, that's not too bad.' Somehow, we've got ourselves in to a situation where paying £100 to a trader for 30 mins work is considered normal.

Yet another. It’s not gendered at all. Both sexes can do either job. A member of my family is a qualified plumber and heating engineer. He did an apprenticeship, on apprenticeship salary, did a two year college course has to be retested every five years to keep the gas safe qualification, can work extremely long hours in very cramped and uncomfortable positions, getting shit on him from toilet pipes etc, so it’s not all glory stuff. And earns no where near 36k. I think that salary is not the norm

My nurse friend is male, it’s not gendered. He earns same as female nurse same grade. It’s down to career choice not gender, in this situation

£36,000 is pretty high for any starting salary isn't it?

Its not fair but some jobs do pay more than others, even those that dont require much work. Its unforunate but c'est la vie also goes off to look at gas engineering jobs

Surely your dd investigated how much she would expect to be paid before she started training
and what her career progression would be.

But of course it is gendered.

Either sex could do either job. So why do we have gendered imbalances in some professions? And why are those imbalances broadly related to gender (ie., female-dominated professions tend to be lower-paid)?

I can't see any explanation other than that it is gendered. And that's not the same thing as saying individual people shouldn't use that knowledge to make better choices.

Yet another. It’s not gendered at all. Both sexes can do either job

Yes. But nursing is seen as a female occupation and is generally paid less as an occupation.

Well, we can change that with our generation of kids, sarahandquack. Encourage our dds to be tradespeople.

It's OK the poster above saying she wanrs her kids to go into trades rather than uni.... But what if the kids don't want that???

I agree with other PPs that nurses pay is too low.

With the gender pay difference there's a lot of focus on the top jobs, senior managers etc. But the difference is at the other end, the no degree required type jobs, the traditional men's jobs earn much more. We can change that though.

YABU to be surprised (your thread title). Nursing pay scales are very easy to find out about. It’s great your daughter enjoys her job (my sister is an A&E nurse and loves it)

Jobs typically done by women are typically valued less...

Gas engineers are paid very well. But training costs and equipment for self employed is high.