shortly before Christmas as part of the union-run case arguing for pay rises of at least $5 an hour, although the in-principle agreement about work value does not endorse the size of the claim.
Increased wages are needed to “to attract and retain the number of skilled workers needed to deliver safe and quality care” in an industry where minimum wages are less than the acute health sector for nurses and “significantly” less than for disability support workers. The federal government made technical submissions answering questions about the aged care workforce, but took no position on whether their work value justified a pay rise.
“It’s an important principle to be able to tell the Australian people and workers in the aged care sector – we support them being paid better than $21 an hour. “While we’re very supportive of an increase in aged care workers’ pay rates, we’re hamstrung by the fact we don’t control our destiny in terms of capacity to pay,” he said, citing the fact the government both subsidises care and also regulates how much they can charge consumers,” Sadler said.
A single person working a 40 hr week in aged care , after tax and after paying rent or mortgage ( if a bank gave them one ) would be lucky to cover food, bills and transport. Rainy day money would be a dream