£10.60 for qualified nurse-stay or walkout

[user1471462428]

I’ve been in my new job for a couple of weeks, I had asked the company to clarify my wages when I first started but the manager was unable to. She did state the generally paid around £14 an hour (this is low for nursing but I was willing to accept it). I’ve just got my first wage slip and it’s £10.60 an hour, it feels like an insult I have to pay a registration fee to be a nurse and once that is deducted I won’t be far off the minimum wage. I have over a decade nursing experience and I will only be paid a pound more than their health care assistant. I’m wondering whether I should walk out? I haven’t been given a contract and feel I’ve been deceived.

"And private employers will pay nurses a salary that is appropriate and affordable for their organisation."

"In this case, that is £10.60 an hour."

I don't know any registered nurse who would work for £10.60 an hour. Starting salary in the NHS for a newly qualified nurse is £12.77, and that's with the benefits of having paid annual leave and sick leave, and a better pension scheme than a lot of private jobs offer. In my experience, private nursing jobs usually pay more than the NHS, but at the sacrifice of annual leave, sick pay etc.

If I had a decade's worth of experience like the OP, then I would want at least £15 per hour. If I was happy to earn around £10.60 per hour then I'd go back to working in Morrison's, who currently pay their staff at least £10 per hour. After OP pays her NMC and RCN fees, she's only taking home £40 more than she would if she worked at Morrison's. £40 isn't worth the extra responsibility and stress.

@DamnUserName21

It will depend on what type of facility it is. Care homes do not need to have any registered nurses on site and it would be an inefficient use of resources to do so.

Nursing homes do need to have a registered nurse but again this should only be 1 individual in most cases, supported by care staff.

*£40 per month.

Not sure why I keep getting quoted with Treeleaf4!

No way the private provider will keep an RN at such a low hourly rate. RN is better off on Bank.

@Hobnobsandbroomstick

I think a lot of nurses looking for a less stressful career option may well accept lower pay to work in a care home. There is significantly less work and responsibility than in the NHS.

Circa £22k a year is a decent salary for someone who is not the main earner for example.

[quote TreeLeaf4]@Hobnobsandbroomstick

I think a lot of nurses looking for a less stressful career option may well accept lower pay to work in a care home. There is significantly less work and responsibility than in the NHS.

Circa £22k a year is a decent salary for someone who is not the main earner for example.[/quote]
Not that much less they won't ,and when I was a nurse I was the main earner ,it's a really shit wage for a qualified nurse.

@TreeLeaf4

Personally I wouldn't say that working in a care or nursing home is less work or responsibility than the NHS. If it's a care home then you may be the only registered nurse on shift, responsible for however many residents. And having worked in a few care homes as a care assistant, a lot of them are not particularly nice places to work, with a few exceptions.

And I still don't know any nurse who would be happy with 22k per year for full time work, but £10.60 per hour isn't 22k per year for a full time job of 37.5 hours (unpaid breaks), it's £20,670. And again, if I was happy to earn that much, then I would get a job such as one in Morrison's and skip the responsibility and need to revalidate etc. That's not knocking Morrison's as a place to work: I used to and miss it! But it takes years, effort and money in student fees to qualify as a nurse, so I want paying properly.

I did my nursing, I'm now a swimming teacher and on 15 pounds per hour and less responsibility 10.60 is an insult.

[quote TreeLeaf4]@Snookie00

I would object to the idea that £10.20 an hour is ‘insultingly low’. Clearly it’s not going to allow a luxury lifestyle but an annual salary of over £22,000 is competitive and a lot higher than many jobs in the U.K.

In any event, as I say, many organisations are having to make efficiency savings and reduce costs wherever possible. It may well be that the OP’s employer would look to increase the salary once their financial situation is better.[/quote]
That's not the OP's problem and she's not running a charity. Fuck staying and putting up with that if you don't have to.

They didn't clarify it because they're trying to rip you off. You're not here to solve their cash flow problems, pay their managers to 'run the organisation' or line the stakeholders pockets. Fuck them.

And you haven't 'fucked up' by not asking them first. You're not past probation stage.

You've used the term private and hospital so I'm assuming it's registered with CQC. I would look up the most recent report and see what rating they have. I used to work for a small registered care home, no nursing, and there was a registered care manager. It was very well run and we all knew what the latest CQC report said.

Now you know what TreeLeaf does for a living, OP, and how she views your role and your work v. hers.

Don't put up with that.

[quote TreeLeaf4]@Hobnobsandbroomstick

I think a lot of nurses looking for a less stressful career option may well accept lower pay to work in a care home. There is significantly less work and responsibility than in the NHS.

Circa £22k a year is a decent salary for someone who is not the main earner for example.[/quote]
Nadine Dorries is that you?

As I’ve previously mentioned in the thread it’s not a nursing home or a care home. I was recruited as a nurse. And as I’ve been a nurse for ten years I’m quite used to people treating me like I’m a piece of shit on their shoe.

Maybe it's different in the health sector, but I would never start a job without a formal offer that stated the pay at least.

@user1471462428

As I’ve previously mentioned in the thread it’s not a nursing home or a care home. I was recruited as a nurse. And as I’ve been a nurse for ten years I’m quite used to people treating me like I’m a piece of shit on their shoe.

Actually this is a good lesson to learn, though. The manager being 'unable to clarify' your wages was the time when you needed to say, 'Then I can't accept this role' and not even go. As it is, walk. 'This wage is unacceptable so I'm moving on. Goodbye.'

Get a harder shell. Fuck people who screw you over.

Treeleaf4
Are you serious?
"Someone who is not the main earner"?
We should all go back to 1940 and have a man take care of us.
If a care home is willing to pay such shoddy rates, I would be wondering what else it is prepared to cut corners on.

[quote TreeLeaf4]@Hobnobsandbroomstick

I think a lot of nurses looking for a less stressful career option may well accept lower pay to work in a care home. There is significantly less work and responsibility than in the NHS.

Circa £22k a year is a decent salary for someone who is not the main earner for example.[/quote]
No it's not, it's still way less than the UK national average.

For a qualified nurse with lots of experience it is diabolical.

You really seem to have a chip on your shoulder about nurse's earning potential. DD is a band 5 at 3 years qualified and on 26,970 which is £13.83 an hour, plus excellent holidays, sick pay and NHS pension, and that is her basic salary. She did an extra £3k this year in enhancements on top of that.

I work in an administrative job where the starting salary is £14 an hour. A few of my colleagues have degrees but it's not a pre requisite and I don't have one. It can be very stressful but not life or death stressful and never "If I make a mistake I might get sued for clinical negligence and lose my career" stressful. You absolutely deserve more and should aim for more.

That wage is a fucking insult.

I'm a nurse and I wouldn't work for that. You have significant experience and I wouldn't expect a newly qualified nurse to work for that.

I do think you need to go back and challenge them about it as they indicated a higher salary (although £14 is not overly high).

If you have other options I'd probably walk, if not I'd stick it until I had another job but I wouldn't sign a contract.

@Serin

Treeleaf4 Are you serious? "Someone who is not the main earner"? We should all go back to 1940 and have a man take care of us. If a care home is willing to pay such shoddy rates, I would be wondering what else it is prepared to cut corners on.

That's exactly how people like TreeLeaf see nursing and other care roles: women 's work for pen money. Should be grateful for their 'little job' by taking shite wages for the benefit of others. Sexist bollocks and the reason why there's already a massive recruiting problem in these industries that will worsen.

No one who believes some roles should accept shite pay to enable others knows how to run an organisation well. I can guarantee no corners will be cut when it comes to management pay.

This is a non-starter, OP. They swizzed you but you sort of let them. Don't do it anymore. No guilt. Just tell them you're not showing up anymore and why. They can try to rip someone else off.

That is an insult.

I earn more as an hlta per hour!

Although I do have a degree and have a specialist role (I do the job as fits with raising disabled ds) it's not a requirement of the role and other staff can work their way up to ten grade and top of the pay for that grade like I am.

Honestly quite upsetting reading treeleafs arsehole comments about a nurses salary we aren’t fucking angels that work for free and ‘ main earner’ what the fuck is that , every adult is a main earner .. you clearly think you are better than nurses . It’s pretty awful that people think we are only worth £10 and hour , I work in the NHS and my rate is more like 16-17 and hour . I’d be appalled at that rate OP , fuck them off .

You could walk into an NHS ward job and earn £12/hr before unsocial enhancements. It's not great but it's better than £10. To put into perspective, I recently saw an advert for night staff at McDonald's--£11/hr.

They're taking the piss and this is a sign of things to come. Run don't walk.

@osbertthesyrianhamster

Well said. The sad thing is that a lot of nurses don't see that they are 'worthy' of fair pay. Like the OP said, she's used to being treated like the shit off someone's shoe, which doesn't instill the attitude of "I'm worth paying adequately for the years it took me to acquire my skills and knowledge". Talking about money makes most of us embarrassed, and recruiters probably know this and take the piss. One of my colleagues recently got a new job in the private sector, and managed to negotiate her salary to be much higher than the figure she was offered at first. But negotiation skills don't come naturally to most people, me included! And we tend to feel guilty for asking for better pay. Needs to change.

@TreeLeaf4…are you a registered nurse? Have you ever worked in a care home? Where did you get your information from regarding work load and responsibilities that RN have in a care home? It is hard work,we need to be extremely knowledgeable,very up to date with our training etc ,we are fully accountable for every decision we make ,we do not have someone we can just call for advice…we really do have to think on our feet .£10.40 an hour is an absolute disgrace and the owners should be asking their business advisors where they are going wrong if that is all they can afford to pay their qualified nurses !!