To this this wage is far too low?

[thirtytalking]

I work as a dental nurse. Have to pay £55 a day childcare, have to pay £120 a year subscription to the GCC, and £40 a year for a CPD programme. It's hard, stressful work.

I get £11.20 an hour. I thought that was bad. Talking to others who have been there longer, they don't even earn that. Some have done extra courses and have other duties and have been refused a pay rise.

I worked in pubs and came home with more. I claim UC and the pay is so low (I only do a few days) it's triggered a back to work meeting. In my last job there was no stress, I didn't have to be qualified or pay anything.. I just served a few drinks and came home with more money. It's a joke.

that is terrible

so you are fully qualified and have 13? years experience?

Have you worked out how much better if you’d be doing a third day?
I always thought you needed to do at least 16 hours.

Why are you looking for zero hours positions?
Wouldn’t this be harder to juggle?

Can you look for a term time only job?
These aren’t great wages but you won’t have to pay as much childcare.

Then when your DC is older you can decide whether to stay in education or go back to dental nursing or something completely different.

That’s ridiculous. I work in a clothes shop and earn the same but no stress (other than the odd grumpy customer)

It’s hard. I worked in an incredibly difficult job on minimum wage (different industry). I worked long hours, was very stressed and gave it my everything. It wasn’t worth it in the end and I felt very free after I left. I realised later I’m worth a lot more. Your mental health sounds compromised and if you aren’t coping then don’t force yourself. i hope you find something more suitable soon. X

I'm fully qualified and worked from 2008 until the end of 2016 when I went on maternity, and then took the (in hindsight, sensible) decision not to return to the industry until this year after having my 2 children. I'd just worked zero hour tearoom type jobs but the weekend work was getting to me with having a school age child, and this was the only thing I'm otherwise qualified in which doesn't include weekends.

well it does.. they do on call twice a year on a weekend (and christmas) you are not paid for being on call, only if you are called out and all you get for being called out is £20 per patient.

@Nowherenew 2 days is affecting my mental health pretty badly so I could no way do 3 days. I have 2 children so if I did a 3rd day would need to pay an extra days childcare for my 2 year old.

I meant more causal work where if you can't work one day, you can come in another day and make up the hours etc. rather than 2 set days every week.

Your full time wage is 21,840. If you worked 37.5 hours a week.

It's a low wage. And lower than a TA wage which is ridiculously low paid. It will go up to minimum wage in April! But that's all relative isn't it.

What perks have you got? Do you get a good workplace pension?
Do you have flexi time?

Do you enjoy the job?

Dental nurses and veterinary nurses are way way way underpaid in my opinion. The amount of training you have to do and you don’t get that much more than minimum wage.

I don't enjoy the job, at all. I thought I might do going back to it, but I'm not.

There is a work place pension, no flexi time. They allow unpaid days or lieu time if needed.
Can't think of any other benefits right now. X

My niece was a dental nurse and could tell a similar story.
Crap pay, fund your own mandatory courses and accreditation. Statutory minimums for sick etc.
Conditions varied from surgery to surgery, but some were horrendous- basically a verbal punching bag and tea lady for the dentists. Others were better TBF.
Left to work in a call centre and re-trained to do something else.

Conditions varied from surgery to surgery, but some were horrendous- basically a verbal punching bag and tea lady for the dentists

Sounds about right. A lot of the dental nurses I talk to seem terrified of their bosses and have all sorts dumped on them that the dentists should be doing themselves.

But a lot of dental practices are basically small businesses so there will be good and bad places to work.

Not an excuse but dentistry is well known as being extremely stressful and how its all gone with NHS/Private/public funding and all that probably hasn't helped.

I think your mental health is affected because you don’t like the job and you have hardly any money.

The more you work/earn the better off you are.

I was always told you had to work at least 16 hours and you’d be better off than working 15 hours and it keeps the job centre off your back.
But I don’t know if that’s still true.

I personally would prefer to do longer days and then have a day off but some jobs let you know just mornings or lunchtimes.
Theres a school near me that wanted lunchtime staff 10-1 everyday or a TA until 12:30 each day.

School jobs are very hard to come by and they’re usually crap pay but the hours and not working the holidays often makes up for it.

What would worry me about zero hours is that your pay/benefits will keep changing and you can’t get into a routine.

I assume you are a single parent?

It does sound as you're very underpaid for what you do. Is that standard for dental nursing? Pretty shocking, if so.

If you found bar work less stressful and better-paid, could you not look for a day-time bar job instead? I've worked in pubs where there were full-time bar staff doing, eg, a 10am-6pm shift five days a week (mainly because they had kids). Or could you move into a different kind of healthcare role with more opportunity for progression?

Not that you should have to do any of this, of course. You should be getting paid a decent wage in the first place. This makes me so angry.

@Nowherenew No there is no requirement for 16 hours for UC to claim but there is an expectation to work a certain amount of hours depending on the age of the youngest child. The 16 hours was under Tax Credits.

OP - oh dear that really really is a crap wage. Im so sorry for you. No way could I go near peoples mouths for minimum wage and Im not surprised you want out ! As others suggest - school work would alleviate child care, although Im presuming you are getting 85% of the cost back from Universal Credit ? Child care work ? .....although that is poorly paid too. Shop work ?

Its unfair that all the grunt work like this is mostly low paid womens jobs 😢

MN is a mine of info - so hopefully the traffic on here will have better suggestions than mine.

Virtual flowers 💐

Agree that you should look at what UC you receive if you work more hours. If your DC are school age, the amount of hours you're expected to work increases and if you meet the hours requirement, you get more UC, so will be significantly better off.

Could you do something completely different? What about self employed cleaning? You'd be able to charge well above NMW and you'd be able to set your own hours within reason. A few clients a week while the DC are at school/childcare would probably see you earning quite a bit more than you do now. Or what about fast food/sandwich shop type work around lunchtime, eg 10-2 4 days a week?

Sadly it's also about supply and demand. I moved to a more rural location 6 years ago and pre pandemic I was amazed at the number of skilled/experienced jobs only paid minimum wage. Eg legal secretary. One had a job description as long as your arm including ability to converse in French, £10 ph.

I employ unskilled 16-25 yo and pay them £10-£15ph. I am shocked OP, that is horrendous.

Is your child entitled to free hours yet?

Its a crap wage.

Pretty certain the 120 GCC subscription can be claimed back through tax return though, so def look into that. Potentially the CPD thing too.

If youngest is 2 then you should be able to claim funded hours in April when the new system comes in (if your nursery can offer it) - that will certainly help with costs as it will give you 15 hours funded from April, rising to 30 hours funded in the Sept. You may find working more hours will then make more financial sense and you'll have more money coming in. Also worth checking if you'd get more UC from working more hours too.

Can you retrain in something cosmetic? Doing injectables and medical facials should align well with your skills and pay a lot more?

If you live rurally, can you move to somewhere with more jobs?

Did you enjoy it before you had children? Surely you knew the childcare costs and pay before having children so must have factored that in?

Agree that is a terrible wage for the job you do OP. I work in a preschool, am qualified with 20 years experience and only earn £10.42 per hour, so I understand how you feel.

Yes it's far too low but I think dental nurses are on par with health care assistants who are usually minimum wage unfortunately

That's terrible op, I had no idea dental nurses were so under paid. I get £11.45 per hour in a supermarket. I have 16 set hours a week and can take on other shifts as and when via an app. My contracted hours are evenings and weekends so works around the kids. It's very low stress but also feels a bit dead end and can get quite boring.

That’s your answer then - do what makes you happier and pays more