To think NMW is not enough?

[Ilovegreentomatoes]

Considering most of the care industry has basically had to continue to run as normal during this pandemic because we are an essential sector why is it seen as acceptable for care workers, nursery workers to still be on NMW?.
The government know how invaluable our services are but we are still bottom of the pile for pay, benefits etc.
Its disgusting that we don't get sick pay either but that's a whole different thread.
AIBU to think that all NMW should be at least £10 + an hour and sick pay mandatory for all professions. More needs to be done to address this but it always seems to be swept under the carpet.

And I've highlighted the care sector as this seems to be the worst in terms of pay.Maybe because its predominantly women in this sector.

NMW should be doubled for all sectors and then other lay grades adjusted accordingly.

I agree. NMW is far too low for such important work. £10ph is still less than £20k pa (for a 37.5 hr), so hardly an exorbitant salary.

But as long as people are prepared to work for such low pay, it will continue.

Yup.

Pay in this country is so unfair. Multiples of 0000's between lowest and highest paid.

Highest paid couldnt earn shit without the lowest paid doing there thing.

(Most) sectors have seen union membership decimated.

But not many bosses prepared to put their employees before themselves/shareholders becoming even richer.

Sucks tbf.

their bloody autocorrect

Don't forget all the care workers that are paid NMW on paper but actually get far less. Unite won a big case a couple of months back, where care workers were actually being paid around £4 an hour.

It's a disgrace. Minimum wage should be a livable wage, and loopholes need to be closed.

I work in care and I agree! I struggle so much with things other people don't bat an eyelash at and I sacrifice seeing my children because of the long shifts, not to mention time to get to work and back, it can be a long and stressful stretch of shifts. Absolutely NMW is not enough!

Agree that sick pay should be mandatory, although it sort of is already. Do you mean sick pay at the same rate as your usual salary? Again I agree, people shouldn't be worried about being ill, but unfortunately we already seem to have a work culture that encourages people to work even if they're ill, which I hope will not ensure once we come out of this covid nightmare.

However people are paid for the skills they have, not necessarily how important they are at any given time. Because cleaning and care roles are seen as low skilled, they pay less. It's capitalism at its finest and keeps the working class in their place

Buy saying that, if you'd worked hard to gain skills, qualifications or just experience in a technical role, wouldn't you expect to be paid more for that? Of course you would.

£10 an hour for 40 hours a week is about £21k which to be honest I couldn’t imagine anyone suffering on or getting a mortgage etc and that’s full time! £12 would be a more viable minimum in my opinion.

Agree with you. I'm doing 11 hour shifts on NMW self employed. My tiny sole trader business was forced to shut again, no gov help so I'm trying to earn where I can as air doesn't pay bills.
In reality, I'm lucky to bring home £70 - £75 of that as don't get paid for lunch, then taking off associated costs.

I genuinely think it is criminal that people are expected to work hard and barely be able to scrape by, especially in jobs such as carers. Definitely had my eyes opened.

Yanbu. I work in a care home for 8.72 an hour and clear around 1250 a month for 37 hours a week. This involves long 13.5 hour shifts and no extra pay for weekends and bank holidays. The work is physical and back breaking including moving bariatric and immobile patients and dragging equipment such as hoists and rotundas around all day. I am literally on my feet for the whole shift and average around 6 miles a day. My home recently won an NHS contract to provide temporary 'enchanced beds' for people being discharged from hospital who display challenging behaviour and require 1-1 support. Despite this no extra staff or pay has been provided. I have been spat at, hit, sworn at and had stuff thrown at me. People in these beds don't rest or sleep and will literally pace the floor for 24 hours a day, including trying to escape out of fire exits multiple times per day and will become aggressive when stopped. This week we have had a scabies case that was only identified after he arrived and a covid case who's results came back positive 2 hours after he arrived. I have to wear a mask and a visor on for 13 hours a day and all for 8.72 an hour. I've had enough and am looking for a way out. Tomorrow will be my sixth day in a row as it's a job no one wants and working with chronic staff shortages makes a hard job even harder. Oh and I was told yesterday my 100 hours of annual leave left will be lost as there are no holidays left to take between now and April.

Sick pay should be mandatory for care workers otherwise you get people going into work with vulnerable clients when they have infectious diseases. They shouldn't be out in a situation where they choose between passing on their illness or being unable to make ends meet.

Exactly, if I caught scabies and was potentially off work for weeks what would I do?

Where are the buggers hiding who voted YABU? Cowards.

Care work isn’t low skilled though, if it’s done properly. Ok, it’s not rocket science but it can be an incredibly challenging and complex role. You need life skills (cooking, cleaning, basic food hygiene skills), common sense, behaviour management skills depending on the cohort of clients/service users you care for, safeguarding knowledge, resilience, creative thinking and good people skills to name a few. If you work with younger people with disabilities you may be required to swim or drive a mini bus or support them to access the community or employment.
You have to deal with complex family demands and dynamics and build rapport with people. You may also be responsible for caring for people at the end of their lives if you work with elderly people or when they’re very unwell or people with extremely challenging behaviour (aggression, non-cooperation with things like self care skills, smearing bodily fluids or self injury)

In short, people who say care work is low skilled talk bollocks. It’s an incredibly skilled job, it’s just a ridiculously under valued job. It makes me angry that they’re so low paid and under valued, especially during this pandemic. It must have been terrifying and heartbreaking in equal measure working in care homes over the last year.

Care work is definitely unpaid!
I'm a factory worker working 9 hour shifts on my feet in the same position on nmw, hoping to god I dont end up isolating as I cannot afford to live on sick pay, but I did 2 decades as a carer and its not exactly a job where you do your hours and leave at the door....

They will suppress the minimum wage

They're already getting rid of the working time directive

The Tories do not care about working people, the working poor, the people who are not wealthy.

And we still have families demanding more and more of us and the care home owners cramming more and more beds into every available space. We have had people's children putting there own health at risk to volunteer to work for us so they can still see there elderly parents, one even got a job as a cleaner. We didn't even get as much as a Christmas card or a thank you from the owners of the home despite keeping it going through a pandemic.

One of the biggest fast ones that successive governments have managed to pull off is making the general public think that the National Minimum Wage is something people can live off. It’s not, for increasing numbers of people. People should be paid a living wage, so if you work full time hours you should be able to pay for the basics!

The biggest joke is

@lostandforgotten I hope that you able to be paid for your 100 hours of ‘lost’ annual leave instead?

This involves long 13.5 hour shifts and no extra pay for weekends and bank holidays. The work is physical and back breaking including moving bariatric and immobile patients

You deserve a lot better

Meant the biggest joke is I work in a nursery am expected to do tons of paperwork on early years development plan and implement enriching activities, safeguard and go on tons of courses to update my knowledge and given the impressive title of early years educator and still paid NMW..
Sure some ppl still believe we sit and play with the children all day.

I used to do care work via an agency when I was at uni and worked in a lot of different care settings. I really have a lot of respect for those who do this full time and hate how undervalued these staff are. I felt completely out of my depth at times. I had one days training at the agency before I was allowed to start work and it was nowhere near enough. I was set to work straight away in a nursing home and asked to use hoists and change catheters. Luckily there were people around to help and show me the ropes but felt like a complete burden as they were so busy. I also worked in the community where whilst some of the work was really lovely, driving people to the shops or to appointments, at other times I really felt like I was in potential danger. Although the bureaucracy somewhere like germany can be at times frustrating, they really are good at training people up and industries like care are much more regulated. So basically I agree that pay is way too low in care and staff are massively undervalued for what they do.

I'm lucky that I'm heading back to university in September to complete a masters degree so this is a 'stop gap' so to speak but I feel for the girls I work with who can't see a way out. I worry every day for some of the ladies I work with who are around 60 years old themselves. I love this job but it's just impossible to do it properly the way that it deserves to be done. I don't believe social care should be run for profit as this is what you get, somebody creaming the profits off whilst sucking the life out of the workers. We are even chastised for eating the left overs in the kitchen and god forbid if we were caught on camera eating something off the snack trolley.