To wonder why supermarket jobs pay more than care jobs

[Apacheshadows]

Hospitality pays more too. Costa coffee £9.36 starting salary, Aldi £9.50, some bars and restaurants offer £10 per hour, plus tips I imagine.
Asda £10.97 for night shifts.

I used to work nights in a residential home and earned £8.91 per hour (over 25)
Earned £9.30 per hour as a support worker for people with learning difficulties, where we had no private area to take breaks in, food stolen, we were physically and verbally assaulted and didn’t have our own staff toilet.
Now on £9.25.
Supermarket and hospitality work is hard, tiring and stressful so indeed it deserves to be paid more, but I really don’t understand why care and support work is paid even less given what is required.
Considering applying for nights at Asda for £11 an hour, I’d never get that in my current role.

I’m not sure either. Care generally is very expensive whether you’re paying for child care or elderly care, but staff on the frontlines seem to see very little of it.

Nursery staff are very poorly paid too, the whole system is a joke

There's more profit to be made in supermarkets than in care homes.

I’ve always wondered this. I work in early years working with our most precious next generation for minimum wage. If it wasn’t for the fact I love working with the children I would be working in a supermarket job for more money.and probably less hassle.

I feel for the responsibility that i have we should definitely be paid more.

Because care has no monetary return. And it's traditionally women who do it and women's jobs are always underpaid compared to men's.

Ultimately, society doesn't value it.

You see it on here all the time - people complaining about the cost of child care, care homes and carers for elderly people.

Unless it's subsidised by the government, it is always going to be poorly paid.

Honestly? Because more men work in supermarkets and they can't get away with having a different wage for women anymore.

People cannot/will not pay enough for care.

It is also a service that would properly work better state run or run by non profit cooperatives (comparable to housing associations) preferably with manager pay levels linked to local authority or nhs bands.

the current model is that because care homes represent a consistent income stream and predictable costs, it's been preyed upon by the private equity sector, a sure fire way to ensure that any profit is stripped out to investors.

I really don’t understand why care and support work is paid even less given what is required.

Really wish people would get their head around basic principle of free market capitalism/economics.

What anyone is paid has sod all to do with how hard the work is, and is solely by reference to supply and demand.

There is essentially a large supply of potential care workers available at any time, as it requires relatively little training or experience at entry level. However, because there is a cap on the profit to be made because there's a limit to what people are able to pay for care, the demand for staff doesnt lead to competitive wages.

The pay is shit and yet swathes of people still do it, you have to wonder why?

Unskilled factory work pays more too. I did some while waiting for the DBS to come through for my new job. And it was EASY and they offered school hours shifts!

@DeepaBeesKit

People cannot/will not pay enough for care.

It is also a service that would properly work better state run or run by non profit cooperatives (comparable to housing associations) preferably with manager pay levels linked to local authority or nhs bands.

the current model is that because care homes represent a consistent income stream and predictable costs, it's been preyed upon by the private equity sector, a sure fire way to ensure that any profit is stripped out to investors.

100% this. I agree.

@2pinkginsplease

I’ve always wondered this. I work in early years working with our most precious next generation for minimum wage. If it wasn’t for the fact I love working with the children I would be working in a supermarket job for more money.and probably less hassle.

I feel for the responsibility that i have we should definitely be paid more.

Responsibility has nothing to do with salary, though, as unfortunate as that may seem.

Lots of people earn well and have very little responsibility in their jobs, just as many people earn minimum wage and have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders.

There is very little profit in caring jobs - unless you want to massively increases the prices people pay, where is the money for all these increased wages going to come from?

People struggle to pay for childcare and care homes as it is. All increasing the prices (and therefore your wages) will do, is push wages up for everyone, so nobody will actually be any better off in the long-run.

@DeepaBeesKit

I really don’t understand why care and support work is paid even less given what is required.

Really wish people would get their head around basic principle of free market capitalism/economics.

What anyone is paid has sod all to do with how hard the work is, and is solely by reference to supply and demand.

There is essentially a large supply of potential care workers available at any time, as it requires relatively little training or experience at entry level. However, because there is a cap on the profit to be made because there's a limit to what people are able to pay for care, the demand for staff doesnt lead to competitive wages.

The pay is shit and yet swathes of people still do it, you have to wonder why?

But there's a massive shortage of care workers! Local providers are having to hand back their contracts to the council because they can't safely staff services. The shit is hitting the fan in a big way because there's no one to do the work.

Supermarkets compete in an oligopoly so they compete on service as well as price. Consumers can easily change to a different supermarket if e.g. shelves aren't stacked or checkouts are too slow. It is unclear in care homes who the actual customer is. Is it the person needing care, their relatives or the local council? And the owners need to make a profit. So there's downwards pressure on costs.

Plus the gender issues already mentioned.

Yep. It’s the same for teaching assistants. I am on £9.30 an hour. At the top of the pay scale with no hope of progression. It’s depressing.

There's more profit to be made in supermarkets so they can afford to. Also as predominantly women who work in caring professions it's assumed they will work for shit pay as its either a calling or the hours fit around childcare. Unfortunately. It is absurd.

Because private companies value profit over staff. Asda and other supermarkets make more profit than care so can afford to pay a bit more.

Good care costs money. Most people wouldn't be happy with a significant increase in their council tax.

There is essentially a large supply of potential care workers available at any time, as it requires relatively little training or experience at entry level.

Thats the thing. I dont think it does require little training or experience. They get away with it because usually you have a more experienced person training a newbie on the job; and also because no one wants to do it they have to lower the bar to get anyone. It doesn't mean its actually a low skill job. You certainly need more skill than working in a supermarket; and I am not saying that requires no skill either - but they are more general transferable skills. Care is quite a specialist skill.

Becouse they can. Look what has happened to HGV drivers - they were not getting paid enough so they walked and now employers have to up their offers. Men wouldn’t dream of working for the wages women are willing to accept. This is also why unions were invented. Join a union ir change your job.

It’s appalling that the people who are caring for our most vulnerable in society are paid so poorly.
You’d probably get more in working in an Amazon warehouse.

Why do supermarkets make more money than care homes though? Because when I look at the fees charged and how much staff are paid there is a huge gap.. Obviously there is gas, electric, water, insurance, food etc... But it still feels like there should be a healthy profit to be had... I know there isn't.... But don't understand why

Because people won't pay the proper value for care.

It’s even more depressing that I’ve just spent 4 years to qualify as a Heath professional getting paid at band 5 on only £2 an hour more than Asda are apparently paying.

Do some people not bother watching/ reading the news?? There are massive shortages of care workers!!

Supermarkets are more profitable. They can afford it.

Because as a society we don't value looking after the vulnerable very highly. As long as they're not wandering the streets in their underwear or setting houses on fire (affecting other people) then they're an afterthought.
And because care is a business and who wants to run a business where you aren't expecting to make a profit? Profit is at the heart of business and care is no different. In most cases if a business can't recruit because they aren't paying the going rate or they're poor to work for they change their practices to recruit or fold. Some in this industry are unwilling to change their practices, some are unable to because it's not simply a case of the customers pay more - when the customer money runs out then LA and government take over (most care businesses charge self funders more than the LA will pay to bridge the gap) and they're not willing to pay the going rate (and most people aren't happy about tax increasing to do that either) so we're left with the workforce subsidising it with poor pay, conditions and expectations of free work with the overtone of 'its a vocation' to justify it.
But care workers need to pay the bills and money does that, not talk of vocation. People are not willing to put themselves in a position of scraping by every month to care for others while there's other options, which there are at the moment.
The people recieving or needing care have no choice in the matter, if they need care then they need care.