To wonder about pay

[Beatendownbylife]

Just thinking about this recently. My nail technician earns £45 for an hour an a halfs work and is self employed. I appreciate she will have to pay for equipment but works out of her own house so doesn’t have to pay to rent a seat in a salon.

She openly stated that she took home more money last year than her brother who is a junior doctor and her mum who is a nurse.

Aibu to think society has really got it’s priorities wrong when nail technicians are getting paid more than someone who may potentially save a life.

They're not comparable.
Public sector workers in front-line jobs are not paid enough, we all know that. The private sector, including small business owners like your nail technician friend, set their own prices.
Public sector workers have all the benefits mentioned up thead, plus job security, whereas private sector benefits vary, and job security, particularly for many small business owners, is often precarious.
The pandemic clearly demonstrated the differences, I bet many nail technicians went lost their jobs, while health care staff had no worries on that front.

However, the lack of interest the Government has in doing anything about financially rewarding the work many workers they employ do is disgraceful.

Self employed people aren't the only ones to pay tax.

A nurse on a salary of £30k also pays tax! Often the tax being self employed works out lower, and public sector workers with good pensions also have large contribution taken out if their pay for them now too.

Yanbu op, people are weird who are happy to shell out these sorts of rates for something totally unnecessary but are happy for a teacher to earn 30k.

Ps i don't judge the nail technicians.

What amazes me is that there is sufficient demand for them.

You being very simplistic about this. The nail technician doesn’t earn £45 for 90 minutes.

Out of that £45 she needs to cover:
holiday pay for herself
pension contributions
equipment costs
energy costs
admin time
insurance costs
tax and NI
professional services eg an accountant
and probably a load more stuff I’ve not thought of

I also agree with others as well that the two jobs of a nail tech and junior doctor aren’t comparable. I’d also argue that the junior doctor isn’t paid great now but once they’re consultant level they’ll be on a lot more than a nail technician who has probably already met their full earning potential.

A junior doctor also gets the NHS pension which is worth a lot!

That £58.5k is just turnover though. It’s not comparable to the salaries you’ve quoted.

No, this is how markets work.

Doesn’t bother me at all when people in different fields earn more than I do as a doctor. It’s open to me to join them if I think it looks like a better deal!

It’s deferred salary though. Public sector workers aren’t paid anything like the amount that would be paid for private sector roles with an equivalent level of responsibility. The govt gets to pay people less now by paying their pensions later on. Another way of keeping financial balls in the air I guess!

If everyone was willing to pay more tax, NHS professionals could be better paid. And people would have less money to spare for fripperies such as having nails done.

She has no pension sick leave or holiday pay, nor pension contributions. I'm a teacher and whilst it's not well paid for the hours I do, I will have a good pension and if I ever need it, sick pay is there.

YANBU and a pp is right who pointed out that the only differences in terms of additional costs to cover are the materials and then holiday pay, sick leave and pension as everyone pays tax and NI off their gross salary so no point even considering that.

other thing to consider is that at busy times of year a nail tech can choose to make more money if they want to by taking on more clients. Yes it’s more hours to work but then you get more money. At Xmas my nail tech does 10-11 hour days 6 days a week because the demand is there and she is happy to do the work to reap the financial benefits. Whereas there are many people in lower paid “professional” jobs who at busy times have to work 60-70+ hours a week for zero additional pay. Teachers at ofsted time spring to mind.

If everyone was willing to pay more tax, NHS professionals could be better paid. And people would have less money to spare for fripperies such as having nails done.

It doesn't have anything to do with paying more tax. I live in Canada where tax rates are similar and healthcare professionals are very well paid (I am one). It's government priorities, not a lack of money.

I just posted this in another thread…

I think that is somewhat regional… For reference I’m in the US… all averages using the ‘low’ side of the scale.

es Registered Nurse makes £71K/yea
^^
GP … £160
^^
Hospital physician…£201
^^
Pharmacist…£71

(Ignore the weird format)…

Yes we pay mor on average than anyone else in the world (we also subsidize most of the world when it comes to R&D). Yes we also pay for those who can’t (yup that’s another subsidy) and taxes for free care to those who qualify)… But our health professionals do make money (that also goes towards things like malpractice insurance). So no issues on recruitment!

.

Your post has really irritated me, OP.

Well done for wanting a woman nail technician to be on minimum wage and your manly man brother to be paid a fortune as a junior doctor. The clue is in ‘junior’, your brother’s earning potential will increase over the years. But you’re such a hero for wanting to take from her to give to him.

If everyone was willing to pay more tax, NHS professionals could be better paid.

UK is a heavily taxed nation, we dont need the burden of more tax, we need a government, with the guts to reform the NHS so we get European level health care. And no way should we adopt the US model.

I know it can. My mum was a cleaner most of her working life. My point was what’s the point of getting a professional qualification, paying to register with a professional body and being required to do CPD and earning 2p more an hour than a cleaner. There’s no point.

It's going to be nowhere near £58.5k thought is it

She won't be doing 25 sets a week every week
She will have sick days, holidays, bank holidays, etc - so say at least 5 weeks off a year
She has to pay insurance, materials, electricity, etc
She will need to make provisions for a pension, with no employer contributions (which is 8% on auto enrollment in total)

So say she does 18 sets a week for 47 weeks of the year - that's 846 * £45 = £38k

Materials - £5 per set * 846 = £4,230
Insurance - say £150
8% into pensions - £3,046

Based on above, this would be £30.6k

Then there is advertising, accountancy fees, cancellations, electricity, etc

I work in a well known fast food chain. I am getting £11.69 for my new rate. I clean and it is hard work.

But it is 45 for 1.5 hours, say she can get 3 clients a day 5 days a week that would be 675 per week, allow for 4 weeks off unpaid it is closer to 32400 pre tax, with no sick pay and no pension

Oh and she has to pay for materials out of that- no idea what that would be

Hi, please don’t think I was saying cleaners don’t work hard. They do, I know they do. my point was dental nurses have to train, qualify, register (and pay to do so) then have to keep up their education and prove they’ve done it or risk being kicked off the register. What’s the point of all that for the wage?

Then start a petition to get drs paid more.

Any one in those professions is free to retrain as a nail technician

See that's what I thought but then if OP isn't arguing she should be paid less but rather doctors more then I guess that's not as bad?

I think a lot of people look down on the nail maintenance industry. For many people it is a ritual, a relaxing time in their busy schedules. For others perhaps they are housebound and this is an hour where they see someone and have them take care of their hands. I remember my grandma in some of her last days would have someone come to the nursing home and paint the residents nails if they wanted. She would get so much joy from that. I wonder how much of it is unconscious sexism as it is a mostly female dominated service.