Quality Care - Minimum Wages

Torry_Quine

SueC wrote: »

It really wasn't an argument, as I hoped my first paragraph made clear - I absolutely and utterly 100% agree that the wages paid to carers are pitiful and should be increased.

Sorry but I don't mean argument as in disagreement but as a different way of looking at things.

lolly_896

I am a carer working in the community, i have worked for same employer for 7 yrs. Compared to all other agencies we are paid very well, are truly valued as member of staff and i thoroughly enjoy my job - I meet so many different people from all walks of life from the very rich to the extremely poor. Our agency has a very very low staff turnover, i know the other that are local that pay minimum wage (mainly because the council made all agencies bid for a tender) have a huge staff turnover and for this reason alone i wouldn't let them look after my nearest and dearest.

Also there is a point about it not being the most skilled job in the world - All our staff are trained in first aid, manual handling, food hygiene, medication, health and safety, infection control and pova. All have or are working towards NvQ lv2 with a few doing lvl 3 and 2 people doing lvl 5

Mrs_Ryan

I work with elderly people with dementia in a hospital setting as an HCA and know that i am very lucky - I have just had an increment rise and so now I earn 15.6k per year and unsociable hours payments on top which take me usually to about just under 17k. However I work with people at the same band as me who earn nudging 20k.
I know of people doing the same job who get paid a pittance in care homes, it is very hard work and it shouldnt be the case that we are the lucky few who get paid well in the NHS, all carers should be paid a decent wage for what they do.

MissSarah1972

Mrs_Ryan wrote: »

I work with elderly people with dementia in a hospital setting as an HCA and know that i am very lucky - I have just had an increment rise and so now I earn 15.6k per year and unsociable hours payments on top which take me usually to about just under 17k. However I work with people at the same band as me who earn nudging 20k.
I know of people doing the same job who get paid a pittance in care homes, it is very hard work and it shouldnt be the case that we are the lucky few who get paid well in the NHS, all carers should be paid a decent wage for what they do.

I think you should be on a lot more.

Money_maker

lolly_896 wrote: »

Also there is a point about it not being the most skilled job in the world - All our staff are trained in first aid, manual handling, food hygiene, medication, health and safety, infection control and pova. All have or are working towards NvQ lv2 with a few doing lvl 3 and 2 people doing lvl 5

And the training in this type of work is ongoing with constant refreshers and new courses. My company (along with others) does not pay me when I am attending training courses as they say it is 'mandatory' for this job and without the training I cannot continue working.

Humphrey10

lolly_896 wrote: »

Also there is a point about it not being the most skilled job in the world - All our staff are trained in first aid, manual handling, food hygiene, medication, health and safety, infection control and pova. All have or are working towards NvQ lv2 with a few doing lvl 3 and 2 people doing lvl 5

Yes there's training required, but it's not exactly rocket science is it? I think that's what the poster meant.

Anyway carers should be paid a lot more. There should be a register of 'ethical' care homes/home carer providers that pay staff a living wage and give staff decent conditions eg holidays, breaks, working hours etc. If people are being treated well they are less likely to be tired and stressed so are probably able to give better care.

brineybay

Thanks for the input so far. I just wanted to see what others felt about this...

brineybay

SueC wrote: »

Absolutely valid as all of these comments are, and much as I believe carers deserve to earn more than is currently the going rate, there is another angle on it.

If you were old and/or frail, would you prefer to be cared for by someone who was purely doing it for the money, or by someone who was doing because they genuinely cared.

I think if you speak to pretty much any carer you will find they don't do it for the money, they do it out of a genuine desire to help.

And yes, that makes them better people than many.

You have raised an interesting point SueC. Like you, I guess most of us would agree minimum wage is not a fitting amount of pay for a job as a carer.

As a rebuttal to your initial point though, "doing because they genuinely cared" - if one was to use this argument, you could just a much say that doctors should not be well-paid, because they should be helping people out of good will.

I'm not trying to compare the years of study you have to undertake to become a doctor with the qualifications of a carer, but if we expect carers to take extremely low wages just because they 'care' for people, why not apply the same logic to other positions which require a capacity of care?

Fiddlestick

brineybay wrote: »

The first thing is this - I have been made aware that in some pharmacies in the area, dispensing assistants (the people who's job it is to get the correct medication for each prescription and check the the drug is correct) are being paid the minimum wage.

It isn't their job to check the medication per se, so long as SOMEONE does the legal double check be it the pharmacist or a pharmacy technician.

Nothing can legally be dispensed now unless the pharmacist is on the premises, and the buck does stop with them if any screw ups happen.

Out of interest was this an independent pharmacy (i.e. with the pharmacist's livelihood at stake) or a large multiple chain pharmacy?

SueC_2

SueC wrote: »

Absolutely valid as all of these comments are, and much as I believe carers deserve to earn more than is currently the going rate, there is another angle on it.

If you were old and/or frail, would you prefer to be cared for by someone who was purely doing it for the money, or by someone who was doing because they genuinely cared.

I think if you speak to pretty much any carer you will find they don't do it for the money, they do it out of a genuine desire to help.

And yes, that makes them better people than many.

SueC wrote: »

It really wasn't an argument, as I hoped my first paragraph made clear - I absolutely and utterly 100% agree that the wages paid to carers are pitiful and should be increased.

brineybay wrote: »

but if we expect carers to take extremely low wages just because they 'care' for people, why not apply the same logic to other positions which require a capacity of care?

I've read and re-read my posts, and can't find anywhere where I've said, or implied, that we should expect carers to take extremely low wages, "just because they care", or otherwise. In fact, it seems to me that I've been fairly categoric in saying the opposite.