Why is looking after children paid less than cleaning?

[Caligula]

Zapping through a list of jobs at my local council, I noticed a post for a nursery assistant at £5.20 per hour.

Cleaners around here charge between £6-£8 per hour.

Just wondered how this can be considered reasonable. I'm continually being told that people who look after children (apart from their mothers) are "professionals". Professionals who are valued less highly than cleaners. (But more highly than mothers.)

Ho hum.

After I qualified i tried going for a few cleaning and chambermaid jobs and always got knocked back, they said I was over qualified and thought I wouldn't stay in the job.

Have to say I'm fairly lucky - not on a great hourly wage - but for a completely unqualified - and with no experience, I'm on £5.50hr - which will probably go up once I've complete my 3 month probation, and once I've got my NVQ2 will go up again - and like Colditz says - it's not boring and actually apart from the bum wiping......actually most aren't bad except one.......I genuinely do enjoy the work I'm doing

Just had a look at the job website I could get £5.44 ph for running a playgroup, with a first aid certificate and childcare qualification. Loads of admin etc. Or I could get £5.50 for being an unexperienced merchandiser who just has to fill out a wages sheet and phone it in. Let me think!!!!!!

yes - but don't forget "hours" come into it as well - not to mention job satisfaction. I'm working very unsociable hours (9.45pm-7am) 3 nights a week - but LOVE my work.

I could probably get a job working 15hrs a week during the day and earn as much/more money - but be bored out of my brain and miserable with it.

I did enjoy working with children but hated being stuck in one room with 1 or 2 other staff the same people every day. One of my jobs that I do now pays £7ph and allows me to work all over the place with different teams of people from all kinds of backgrounds every time.

I treat my merchandising job as therapy , I work away on my own putting the stock out with no hassles, wouldn't want to do that 39hrs a week though.

I would love the carers at my dd's nursery to be paid more - they work so bl_ding hard and are clearly exhausted by the end of the day. But the nursery fees are also sky high and I truly would struggle to afford to pay more to fund extra wages.

There must be something inherent about childcare which makes it so expensive and ultimately exploitive of the people who work as carers to make it commercially viable. This is where I believe that if carers are to be better paid, the government has to subsidise to some extent.

Is this the case, blueshoes. I mean where does the money go? When I told my friend in the states what I pay for childcare (she too had a child in full time care), she had to pick herself up off the floor to respond. She pays a fraction of why I pay. Why is this? Are there more taxes over here for the business to pay? More overheads? Bigger profit margins for the owners? I'm just making wild guesses here. I really know very little about running nursery.

But I do agree that childcare in this country is outrageously unaffordable for the average family. And I can't see that this is good for the country's future.

Hi Uwila, I too ask myself where it all goes! Just running through the possible reasons: business tax - that is where govt subsidies/tax rebates come in. High overheads? Absolutely. Things are incredibly expensive in UK compared to US. Rent and food alone is on a different plane. Profits? Can't imagine it is that substantial otherwise there would be a lot more nurseries in my area. I was on wait list for a year!

The cost of childcare in UK is shocking, and then even more so when you consider how poorly paid the staff are. Gripe gripe.

Ah yes... the cost of living here may very well be the key. I often wonder this. If we could get the cost of living down would that help us all out. I mean if it didn't cost so bloody much to buy food and pay rent, then I'd have more money with which to pay childcare. And if it didn't cost so bloody much to pay rent and buy food, then the childcare workers could live on their wages... So, now how does one reduce the cost of living????? Why is it so high here?

I'm sure this is a much bigger debate than just reasonable pay for childcare vs. cleaners. But it does concern me, where are we going to be in 20 years if we don't get the cost of living down.

Housing housing housing

On the high cost of living, not always having lived in the UK, I have always been struck by how the inflation rate or consumer price index (sorry, I don't know the exact term) is used to justify price increases across the board. What this means is when the price of sugar, petrol or whatever it is that goes into the basket of goods goes up (for whatever reasons), the whole world and their mother jumps in to increase their pricing by the same percentage, irrespective of whether their actual costs have gone up eg stamps, train fares (growling here), school fees, nursery fees will go up by that rate - minimum!

I have to admit my salary is also inflation adjusted every year. But is this arbitrary adjustment for inflation what fuels the cost of living into a vicious circle upwards?