To wonder why I’m working for £9.20 an hour

[Dragula333]

Care work, it’s chronically poorly paid but I know there are still care companies paying £10/11 an hour.

I have a degree and a Master’s, not that it makes me any better but I just feel I should and could be on a higher wage. It’s an important and very rewarding job, and I do like it but I’m starting to feel like a fool.

So many places pay better, Aldi, Amazon etc.
Would you accept this wage ?

@Zotter I will ask her but I expect you are right. We did try and employ someone direct at first but couldn't find anyone suitable. He only needs 5x 1 hour a week at this point which I guess isnt a very attractive package of work.

I think carers should be paid at least £20 an hour knowing some of the things they have to do & the fact that home carers only get paid the time they are in a client's home, not the time travelling between carers. Anyone who doesn't think they should be paid £20 an hour should try doing the job for a year, they will soon change their minds. Carers keep ill, disabled & elderly people out of hospital & care homes & must save the NHS & Social Care service millions each year & should be treated as a valuable commodity.

@Porcupineintherough

No I dont think I would, that's horrifically bad. Do you happen to know what your clients pay per hour? We pay £19/hr to the agency for my dad, I'd hope to God the carer sees a good chunk of that.

" I'd hope to God the carer sees a good chunk of that."

Under 50% for sure. I think the average for care workers in the UK is about £9 per hour. So a few are paid more, most are paid much less, £8.50 ish I imagine.

I know a few carehome owners locally.

New cars for all the family every year.

Minimum of 6 weeks (paid of course) overseas each year.

Max of a couple of hours of "work" each week.

Restaurant or high end take out daily, and for lunch usually.

The nurses and customers are being ripped off in almost all cases I have seen or heard of.

The assited living flats places are better value, but only for mobile and non-dementia people sadly.

@Fairyliz

But surely you knew the wage when you applied? Why did you not apply for graduate jobs?

This Why go on about having a degree if you haven’t used it ?

Caring is an amazing rewarding job if your heart is in it

A staff nurse is only on £13-16 an hour so realistically you’re unlikely to be paid much more than you are currently. Your masters degree is irrelevant to your current job so as people have suggested if you want better pay I’d try and look for something which will use both skills such as special schools (maybe a residential one?). Or possibly look at agency work or being self employed as a home carer.

Op I understand how you feel. I work in a nursery and I don't even earn £9 an hour. I love my job and my kiddies but it can be tough going sometimes and I feel I put in so much heart and effort for so little pay, long hours and shit holidays. It's disheartening as our role is essential and important.

I'm very deflated reading this thread- I'm a team leader working for the local council. My hourly rate works out at £12.00 an hour. My direct reports earn £9.63 an hour- I have 8 staff but am often responsible for 25 in total. When I started this job it was relatively well paid - £16K early 90's. It's a joke now really. We work in finance- get abuse and threats daily- talked 2 customers down from suicide in the past few weeks as well as dealing with the staff 'issues' - I have 2 members of staff who have awful mental health problems (not work related but dreadful personal issues) . I cannot stand how devalued some jobs have become- Have nurses/careworkers in the family and it is utterly shocking how low wages are. Close family member has spent last 30 yrs working at secure mental health facility- full of 'mad not bad' prisoners and been injured many times. Awful situation and I hope to god wages increase soon for everyone in public service /care jobs.

It all depends on how much you need the money really .

I would rather earn £9 an hour where I got job satisfaction than £10 per hour where I didn't . But I'm not struggling financially .

I would think that there are other options open to you with your qualifications though .

@Sequin4Bag567 Yy my dh has no degree and earns approx 80k a year. Plus bonus, health insurance and 2-3% raise each year!

Have you considered working as an independent/private carer?

Having navigated the hell that is agency managed "care" in recent years more than once I found that the agency provision was charged out at 20-25ukp per hour, visits were rarely the same carer for more than a few days running making any kind of client relationship impossible, visits were carved into minimal length and in 3hr windows and the carers were run ragged.

I thought going privately would cost more but was desperate for better care options after a week of "breakfast" and "lunch" visits being combined into one visit (so effectively only one meal as well).

We found private carers who worked independently and had all the DBS checks/insurance you would expect. They both charged £14 per hour which was the standard rate in the area for independents. I was astonished as we were expecting to pay more. Both were adamant that for the type of care needed this was the rate and was near double what they had been paid in the agency sector. Both had left agency work for exactly the reasons you described - too much work, too fragmented, difficulty getting to know clients. As independents they could ensure they saw the same clients at the same time every day, build a relationship, manage their own workload and have much more job satisfaction. It was also more money (even with the business overheads) but that wasn't the key reason for going independent.

I have NC. I own a care home. I want to start my confirming that Carers are massively underpaid. However, to assume that it’s all the fault of the care home owners is not true. I own a care home because I love what I do…. Or did before the pandemic. I also cover shifts - night shifts, cleaning, cooking. What ever needs to be done.

What the Local Authority pays me per week for some residents only covers 60percent of my salary bill for all staff. The weekly rates have been increased just 2% over a 5 year period.
I would love to be able to pay more but I can’t. I pay above minimum wage and have no zero hour contracts. But I can’t compete with what some supermarkets pay.

If I am full I make a profit. If I am not full I make a loss. Small privately owned care homes are generally not some money making cash cow. Small care home owners generally work really really hard for minimal profit. They do it, like carers, because they love what they do.

Don’t tar all care home owners with the same brush, we don’t all make massive profits, I work every single day, I’ve never ever worked as hard as I do right now. Like my staff I will be working this weekend, I will be in on Christmas Day. I don’t believe that I can own a business and lead a team if I have not actually done every single job that carers are expected to to.

Local authorities need to have the budgets to be be able to pay for the true cost of care. Then carers can be paid what they deserve. Massive social care reform is required. That costs money and taxes need to be raised (not national insurance) but the majority of the public don’t actually want to pay more and just believe that the cost of care is too high. I can promise you it is not.

Apologies I won’t reply now as I am off to bed…. As I will be caring in the morning.

@Glenthebattleostrich

It's more than i earn as a childminder!

That’s disingenuous. You can have more than 1 child, pick your hours and plan your day as you please.

My CM had 3 children full time and therefore got £19.50 per hour.

Depends on what you're getting out of the job that isn't monetary.
I work in a preschool for £9.20 an hour. It's exhausting both physically and mentally. I often do my paperwork eg planning and observations at home unpaid. I'm perminantly knackered tbh.
I have a level 3 qualification as an early years educator plus a degree in social policy and education. I could earn much more I guess and lord knows my husband and even my boss repeatedly tell me I am wasted there and could do so much better however I love my job. I love each and every child in my care. I love watching them develop, I get so much from it. Also I work termtime and have been able to spend every holiday with my own children which is worth more to me than money.
I guess you have to weigh up what else the job gives you apart from a wage. If its not worth it for you then it's time to look for something else.

A company I worked for thought it was fine paying £8.91 pH for night shifts. That was a 10 bed home with 2 members of staff on at night supporting adults with learning difficulties. I soon left and found much better paid job

Relative moved from hospitality to home carer4 months ago as wanted to feel was doing a more worthwhile job - so tough. Always rushing in car to keep to times and so many road works. (in London) Paid 30p/mile petrol but hardly covers extra car insurance needed. etc. Now found out will be doing usual shifts Saturday (7am - 10pm) and Sunday (7am- 4pm) on Christmas Day and Boxing day and will get usual £9.50/hr. Would have got £15/hr if worked the Bank Holidays Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th but they are their days off -. It's been the final straw missing nearly all of Christmas and feels so unappreciated by employwr and planning to give notice in to finish on Christmas Eve. Going to apply for supermarket work instead as far less stressful and better pay. Such a shame.

I don't know about the amounts paid to care homes nationally but I work for a care company in South Wales and our carers earn 8.91 per hour because the council pay us 12.15 per hour for Direct Payments and we have to fund their training, uniform, sick pay, mat leave and annual leave plus insurance. I'm not happy with how little we pay them (I earn the same) but until a higher value is placed on care work by society, I can't see it changing.

I was on minimum wage when I did care work OP, as are many. (I have a 1st from a good university- it's not relevant if you're wiping arses really.)

A lot of people are leaving the sector as it's a lot of stressful and grim work for little pay.

It's your duty to make your life the best it can be, so if you want a different life, try it.

As companies realise some carers have other options, the wage may go up. But there are probably actually plenty of women with few options that they can exploit.

When I did care work 30 years ago, agency staff earned a much higher hourly rate than the staff employed by the care home. I switched to agency and enjoyed going to lots of different settings, including NHS hospital wards. I suppose you don't build up the same relationships with those you're caring for, nor the teams you're working with, unless you get regular placements in the same setting. Even bank staff at the local hospital get a higher rate than you're getting and again, my friend who does bank loves experiencing so many different areas of the hospital.

I earn £9.63 per hour working PT in a supermarket, with pension scheme, staff discount and other benefits. I really enjoy it and may well continue on reduced hours when I reach pension age next year.

I agree that care workers are poorly paid, and for what they do, they should be paid more and be appreciated more.

Having said that, many people earn very little in jobs which are very hard work. But of course you could earn more in a different job. Having a Masters or other qualifications doesn't guarantee you extra money; however, it does provide you with choice....the choice to go elsewhere else or do something different, a choice which those without qualifications don't have.

I also have good qualifications. In the past I have held highly paid positions, sometimes in management. But now I earn £9 per hour in a job which is quite physical in nature but which holds little responsibility. Yes, I could earn more but the point is that I have chosen not to. At my time of life, I no longer want the positions or responsibility I took on when I was younger, I just want to go to work, do the job and then go home. That's the trade off for the low pay.

There's an interesting debate to be had about what constitutes "responsibility" though. Someone gets paid thousands and thousands of pounds for the "responsibility" of managing finance, but the "responsibility" for a dementia patient's whole life is not considered worth much in monetary terms. Indicative of society's values.....

when I say minimum wage I mean what the govt call the 'living wage' of course. That was agency work. They really took the piss with the hours they wanted me to work, too. This was less than a decade ago so I imagine it's much the same, except we weren't paid for travel between calls then- I know there was discssion about fixing that.

There's an interesting debate to be had about what constitutes "responsibility" though. Someone gets paid thousands and thousands of pounds for the "responsibility" of managing finance, but the "responsibility" for a dementia patient's whole life is not considered worth much in monetary terms. Indicative of society's values.....

@MeanderingGently It's more that more people are capable of the actions of basic care work (in theory!) than are capable of being a financial manager. So people doing the role of care workers are relatively easily replaced, and people in the jobs tend to have few alternatives, so they can be paid little and still have to stick around.

@Dragula333 Could you go into some involvement with SEN? I know someone who did it and you can still get a good salary but without some of the unpleasantness of teaching.

I'm sure there's something well paid you could get of some kind with your degree etc.

I totally admire you to be doing a job as a carer. It’s such an important job and so valuable to society. I think it’s absolutely shocking how badly paid it is. What use do highly paid jobs such as investment brokers and bankers have to society really? This country values money too much and not the things that truly matter.

*In my experience, people only accept low wages if:

• They cannot get any higher wage elsewhere; and/or
• The job they are doing feels like a calling, and it's incredibly rewarding.*

Your experience is limited. There are many reasons why a perfectly capable employee is restricted in hours, travel or accessibility. Many companies don't want to make accommodation for extra needs. And some are prejudiced against protected characteristics but disguise it.

Bold fail :(