Become a social media expert, not a nurse
I CAN well understand why UK nurses are so angry with the government over the 1 per cent pay rise they have recommended to the pay review body, given that inflation predictions suggest that this will, in fact, mean less money in real terms.
After all, the Prime Minister thanked them for saving his life and he and colleagues joined the rest of us in clapping every week for some time last year.
They will also know that their average real pay – what they can buy with their salary – has fallen by 7.4 per cent since 2010: very different from government statements about pay from the Prime Minister and the health minister, Nadine Dorries. So yes, I understand their anger. However, I think that it is misdirected. They should instead look back to before the start of their careers and blame two groups of people: their school careers advisers and their parents.
Careers advisers should have known more about salaries.
Now, for example, most newly qualified nurses start on £24,907, and the average UK salary is £33,384.
Not bad compared to some, but not many have to undertake several years of study and work in such demanding and relentless circumstances, especially harrowing since last February.
If only they had pointed these young people away from nursing and towards, for example, a career as a government special adviser.
Take a recent recruit, Cassius Horowitz, who is one of the Chancellor’s advisers.
From government official figures in 2020 he is on a pay band that goes from £57,000 to £80,000.
His responsibilities, according to the Tatler magazine, include smartening up the Chancellor’s social media image (Instagram in particular). He is also the co-founder of a “brand consulting” company.
Yes, those careers advisers have a lot to answer for – after all, even experienced nurses do not earn anything like what this 29-year-old does.
And parents should share the blame. Sorry, mums and dads – but why did you not send your children to private schools so that they could make the contacts needed for high paid jobs that do not involve sickness and death?
Research in 2016 found that private school educated men earnt 34 per cent more by the age of 42 than state educated contemporaries, and 21 per cent more in the case of women.
More recent research has found a similar discrepancy. I suspect that nursing is mainly populated by state educated people.
Oh dear ... I have just read what I have written and need to apologise to careers advisers and parents.
Yes, those in nursing might have been guided away from it towards better paid and less risky occupations, but what if we did not have these nurses?
It might be that an occupation where people dedicate their time to caring for others in significant need is even more important than one where people dedicate their time to smartening up a senior politician’s social media image – just one example that compares social value with income.
Well, that’s what I think, so maybe I should join those arguing for decent pay increases.
After all, if we can afford to give £1.5 billion worth of contracts to companies linked to our ruling party, as reported in the Times last November (even if they have little knowledge of what they are contracted to provide), surely the magic money tree can be shaken a little more for our nurses?
Les Gallop, Syston