to think the going rate for a child care worker should be higher than for a cleaner?

[witchandchips]

and if so should we lobby for the early years grant to be increased so that nurseries can afford to pay their workers more?

I also think that child carer receiving a low wage doesn't mean the parents are not paying very much. We live in central london and pay £1400 a month on our nursery (which is a huge amount to us.. maybe not to others !). Sadly, alot of that money goes to insurance and admin costs and the actual carers are not on great wages. I would feel alot happier about spending that amount of money if it was reflected in the staffs wages.. having said that the nursery is amazing, staff super dedicated and it lovely..but still I strongly feel that people woking in childcare should be paid more.

Caring work is notably underpaid.

freshprincess: "I would have to dispute that.. my kids are currently at nursery and are starting school this September. When looking into schools we were amazed to find that we could send our children to private school for less than we were paying at nursery."

Yes, I pay more to a nursery than for private school, particularly for children below 2. So I would agree with your experience.

That is just comparing school fees and nursery fees. But you have to bear in mind that for a private day nursery, a fulltime place is 8am - 6pm, 51 weeks a year) whilst a fulltime place in school is 8:30am to 3 pm, 35 weeks a year. If you take the cost of breakfast club, ad hoc afterschool club, aupair for school run (because of the awkwardness of a 3 pm pick up) and holiday cover, nursery fees (for over 2s) and private school stack up to about the same in my dd's case.

As for the parents not being prepared to shell out in the early years, that is not true. Parent shell out the same and frequently more for early years than private schooling. It is due to the high staff ratio for infants and young children in nursery which results in less available to pay as wages to nursery workers - which I do feel is a shame.

My dd's pre-school is cheaper than the nursery! And they go on til 5.30 and she can even stay longer. (not that I'd want her to).

Blueshoes, your post about nursery workers getting benefits made me smile. I have worked in a variety of nurseries, some independent and some from chains and I have NEVER worked for one whereby I get sick pay, or pension built in. The only 'benefit' I have ever received has been the bog standard holiday entitlement. That's all in over 10 years of working in early years.

"As for the parents not being prepared to shell out in the early years" - I did not mean to sound like this comment was directed at you, freshprincess. I know we are both addressing that same (erroneous IMO) comment.

Sorry to hear of your experience Dannat. That is not a good deal.

My dcs attend a well-known chain of nurseries, who I believe pay their staff higher than average. I know they go on holidays, have staff training and are sponsored for childcare qualifications and given study leave. And I have seen many of them promoted through the ranks. I did not ask about their pension, though!

I'm obviously looking for jobs within the wrong chain then blueshoes!

I have just done a degree in early years and with that, my Level 3 qualifications (I have 2) and my experience, minimum wage just doesn't cut it. I went into early years when I was young, free and single and it is only the love of the job that has kept me plodding along. Now, however with DC's and a home to run, I am unable to carry on working for such awful money.

I'm sorry, but I do not agree that a cleaner's job is worse than childcare. Cleaners do not have to deal with tantrumming children, toilet accidents, irate parents etc etc and clean.

Dannat, I understand what you mean about things changing once you have children. The thing which always preyed on my mind was how few nursery workers came back to the job once they have children, other than as bank/float staff. It does not sound like a child friendly job.

I would agree that I prefer cleaning. It is so peaceful compared to childcare

I have always found it apalling that people will pay their cleaners and gardeners more than they pay their nannies.

Are not our children the most precious things in our lives?

I do understand that some people are not able to pay as much as they would wish and am sympathetic to those employers but some are just plain mean.

As a lady running a nanny agency said to one of her customers 'if you pay peanuts expect to get monkeys working for you'

A cleaners job is not harder than beind a childcare worker.

I work in a pre school, and as well as provide early years education, I have had to clean sick, the occasional poo, constant snotty noses, and make sure the hall we use is left clean and tidy.

People do not always send their children to settings just to provide childcare. The vast majority of our parents send their children because of the endless list of benefits it has to their children.

I work in a secure unit, fellas with PD's. Crap money and high staff turnover, especially with male support workers (more likely to be attacked than a female). Therapuetic relationships can't be built because people are always either sick or leaving. So there are no winners.

We have had nannies and never paid less than £10 an hour and that doesn't always reflect the quality.
I do feel sorry for the nursery staff because I would pay £400 a week but I know it wouldn't mean a rising in salary for the staff just profit into the pockets of the owners.

What you are all saying is ethically and morally right - unfortunately it's all about supply and demand.
Child care has to be cheap enough that it is worth the parents working.
More 16 year old school leavers want to be nursery workers than cleaners.
Those 2 facts mean that there will always be people willing to look after small children for minimum wage....

Doesn't make it right, but that's market forces..

The problem is that if childcare workers were paid more the nurseries would be too expensive for the parents.

I basically pay my nanny half of my take home pay. Thats ok but I am a well paid professional (ie HR taxpayer even though I only work part-time), not sure how the finances work for those who earn less.

For those that say cheaper childcare well around here nurseries are 2/3 of the cost of the nanny and that would only help for the baby would have to find after school care for 4 YO and 6 YO.

This thread is 2 years old!

I earn a good wage and am in childcare of sorts - by the sounds of it in the same role as Mimi.

Gah - why do people resurrect old threads?

(Still an issue though...)

I work in preschool have 20 years experience, level 3 and am paid just over £7 an hour.

I have just joined the 4 other staff in my worplace and taken on another job. Only the manager doesn't do 2 jobs!!!.

i work as a carer of the elderly and am one of the lucky few to be working for the council which means we get paid slightly more than minimum wage , this is what i have to gothrough to get my slightly above minimum wage pay packet

get up at five thirty
empty commode pots filled with urine and excrement
fill in endless paperwork
bath and dress and serve meals
be a shoulder to cry on
put up with physical and verbal abuse
do endless courses in my own time
see people you have become attached to suffer and sometimes die , which can really affect you as you do become close to people
then to have people turn around look down on you and say i couldnt wipe bums for a living
it drives me mad , i took this job because i genuinely wanted to make a difference to ppeoples lives
it is sad that the people in charge of our loved ones care are paid the absolute minimum .