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.

Well junior doctor's are on a trajectory to much higher salaries and the ability to earn privately, they pay into a pension but it's a final salary one.
A nail technician has sporadic work, I bet most of the weekdays are quiet, no paid holidays, sick and no progressive earnings.

The issue here is doctors salaries (and public sector salaries in general).

The government have massively devalued state-employed professions in recent years through pay freezes.

Forty years ago being a doctor was probably ‘the’ aspirational career. You could afford a decent house, privately educate your children etc.

Now the salary is comparatively low given the amount of training and responsibility, until you make consultant (which might be aged 40).

I have a junior doctor among my friends. She works shifts (inc overnight) and is constantly training and taking exams. She is moved around hospitals so they are often inconvenient for her. Due to maternity leave she is still a way off being a consultant (mid-30s). She earns about £60k.

Similar aged friends in finance / law / business are earning £100k+ at the same point. And none of the strange work hours or study.

The vast majority of doctors under 40 I know now live in Australia, or left to do something else. It’s very sad.

Well, sort of.

The ‘market’ for doctors is controlled by the NHS. So the salaries don’t really reflect anything beyond what they arbitrarily set them at.

I dontnunderstand your point. If you think the money should go somewhere else, you can opt to make a donation to charity rather than pay her. You dont need to use her service. If you choose to, she can charge what she wants.

If the point is that you think medical staffbshoupd be paid more then get campaigning, get out on strike days, use your voice.

Theres no sense in musing on a hypothetical world.

Someone self employed in the personal service industry can earn a lot of they have a busy diary.
Hairdressers, massage therapists, beauticians. But you wouldn't want one of them performing open heart surgery.
Comparing an NHS career to that of a nail technician is like comparing a footballer to a waitress. Both have value, but one is perceived more lucrative by a million percent.

People are paid what people are willing to pay for their services.
Unfortunately people (in general) seem to be happy to pay £45 to get their nails done and not pay £45 to see a doctor

Nb: I know SOME of us pay national insurance but we all know this is just an extra tax into a government pot.

Your are comparing apples and chocolate biscuits.

They are. People in those professions are leaving, not necessarily to become nail techs but they are certainly coming to the conclusion that the grass is greener elsewhere and many public sector services are facing recruitment crisis.
I work in a school and have seen several Teacher colleagues leave to start their own small businesses over the last couple of years. We used to have loads of applications for support staff and admin roles but now it's getting really hard to recruit and TA's are leaving to work in retail or hospitality because they can't afford to stay. That's the fault of the Government though, I have no issue with nail technicians charging as much as they see fit if people are willing to pay.

How timely 🤣