The title which is a quote from a very bright but underpaid woman just about sums up my morning which I spent with people who work with disabled people – both with intellectual and physical disabilities.
They work very hard and over long hours – often because despite the unemployment situation lots of people can’t or won’t do their work.
They administer medicines, toilet people, bathe them, care for their money, act as counsellors, and are regularly assaulted.
One guy worked 143 hours in the last fortnight and a woman 130. One couple had three nights together in a fortnight.
There has been a job evaluation using the Dept of Labour job evaluation tool. Three jobs that should be the same pay.
Disability support workers $28k – $34k, Therapy assistants $29k – $41k, Corrections officers $41k – $51k.
Why? Women, brown and older.
Frankly while Labour made some progress in this area it was just not enough. The situation is disgraceful.
That is true, it’s also true that not many people are prepared to do that kind of work and it takes a really special person to actually not only do that kind of work, but be good with the people who have the disabilities. It does require a lot of energy to do that kind of work.
Thank you Trevor.
I regularly meet with workers in this sector and am awed by their patience, dedication, skill and passion for their job. They serve their clients diligently – giving some very vulnerable people the quality of life and self-respect that they deserve.
The starting rate of 13 odd dollars an hour that these people get paid is simply not enough. The job shouldn’t be seen as an “avenue of last resort” – but a career of choice that encourages gifted carers to pursue it.
People with intellectual disability deserve professional and compassionate care – which can’t be achieved until the funding exists to pay for it.
The pittance we pay our carers demonstrates just how little our society values the lives of those with intellectual disabiity.
Hear, hear, Trevor. Disabled people deserve better too. Properly trained, remunerated, rested and unionised staff. Last year’s Select Committee report on the Quality and Care of Disabled People has some strong recommendations on improving the workforce. You could ask Tariana Turia’s Ministerial Committee what progress there has been.
Hilary said… Disabled people deserve better too. Properly trained, remunerated, rested and unionised staff.
Unionised staff have no bearing whatsoever on the standard of care given. In fact I postulate that loss of flexibility will reduce care. I agree with your previous comments though.
Unionised, professionalised with a proper title for the work they do which honours them and the disabled people they work with eg personal assistant or support worker (not carer), with an association and a code of ethics, and a career pathway. Will all help improve wages, conditions and status. Then the next step is to centralise the workforce like teachers so as much pay as possible goes directly to the worker rather than fragmented to middle organisations on the way.
Trevor
I have covered this isn Darien’s post.
“Why? Women, brown and older”.
That’s not the reason they are receiving this level of pay. If white middle class men were doing the job they would be receiving similar pay, which is why I guess they choose not to do the work, their free choice to where to work means they choose higher paying jobs with wealthier clientele in differing vocations.
If they all got up and left there would then be a need to increase pay levels. While they stay and whinge about being poor, brown, women and old, they will never get ahead.
Of course if they did all decide to leave, the Government would just import labour to do their job for them. Unfortunately if they think NZ treats them with disrespect, wait until they see caregivers in Asia.
They’d swim from Asia to get $28-58k a year.
No Kate – men doing an equivalent job earn 50% more. Prob because they are more likely to be as hard as you and less prepared to abandon clients.
Trevor
50%? If that’s actually the case then all the women need to toughen up and ask for more money and if not, leave. 50% higher pay for men seems absurd.
Or by “equivalent job” do you mean a different job that some tin arsed bureaucrat deems to be equal that Unionist trot out as fact for seeking higher pay for their members? Or caregiver vs caregiver with equal role and responsibility?
Because if there is actually a woman and a man working next to each other as caregivers in the same job helping the same people and the man is getting 50% more pay I would deem the woman pathetic for putting up with that and deserving of lower pay.
For god’s sake it’s 2009. Grow some.
Kate there is no market here. The vast majority of funding for paying these women comes from government. There is a variety of health, community and private organisations arranging the care but their funding doesn’t stretch to decent pay.
Good on Trevor, Darien and the other Labour MPs who took the time out during Disability Support Awareness Week to see for themselves the work that disability support workers do.
The Parliamentary Social Services Select Committee Report, released late last year, recommended establishing a strategy “to improve training, pay rates and working conditions” for support workers.
While the Ministry of Health has just produced a Disability Services Workforce Strategy and Action Plan the current moves by the Government to gut the Ministry may mean that the actions in this plan never see the light of day.
I don’t see how a corrections worker is in the least comparable with a caregiver.
{screams} Of course there is a market Trevor. Demand for and supply of labour for a wage. Little wonder union members don’t know how to get higher pay when their own pollys don’t understand the market.
There is even a direct market for private caregivers to compare against – I’m sure a woman looking after an 85 year old millionaire with Alzeimers is paid more than these own.
But somehow the wages for all bureaucrats and politicians (all funding coming from the taxpayer) seem to grow and grow and grow……
“their free choice to where to work means they choose higher paying jobs with wealthier clientele in differing vocations.”
Hurrah for the end of service and the rise of the me me me generations.
Of course, what comes round goes round, and maybe one day there’ll be no one left to nurse kate’s lil prickly pears, or provide OT or shower supervision for her aged axylotls.
Karma.
And yes, the situation IS disgraceful.
Working with people with varying disabilities is not a job that alot of people would or could do. I congratulate those caregivers who are working in that field as they are obviously dedicated in helping to make a difference to the most vunerable people in our society.
Many staff work/ing in isolation are not just vunerable to physical and verbal abuse they are often open to allegations of misconduct or serious misconduct which in alot of cases is very hard to prove if you are workin alone. Yet they do the job for less money than their counterparts. Why? because they care, but that doesnt mean that it is acceptable to pay them less.
Cactus kate suggests that people should just toughen up and ask for more money or leave is absurd. That ideological thinking just doesnt fit with predominately women,brown and older and thats a fact.
Those women, brown and older need decent pay.
Actually there are many immigrants working in this industry (particularly the aged care sector) because NZ workers don’t want to do the work. However, the government has now cut back on those with temporary work permits and many of them have had to leave NZ, so we are about to have a crisis as many newly unemployed will be sent to work with disabled people without any inclination or talent for it.
There is another aspect of this work that makes it unattractive – that you have to travel between workplaces to work with those in their own homes or in shared homes, such as for those who get one or two hours of help a day, without travel compensation, so a 40 hours earning could take up to 60 hours working time.
I have to agree with kate.I work in an industry were women are paid as much if not more than me,they tend to dominate teamleader/management positons in my area,not because they are women,but because they are confident in their ability.lower paid jobs are there for several reasons,they are not in a recognised profession,no one has the confidence to stand up and demand better pay because they can be sacked and it is can be difficult to get new skills to get a better paying job if you are not in a postion to do so.
The whole way of funding to these grouos has to change,a minimum wage sytem has to be built in so lower skilled workers are gauranteed a semi decent pay.It may mean the company running the work may employ one or two less people to keep costs down but after all business is about profit.
To be fair, there are some carers who do engage in misconduct.
I hope Kate has the Karma bus pull up at her door for such pathetic remarks.
The Disability Support Workers role is demanding,underpaid, horrible hours (mostly split shifts) and carries a huge degree of responsibilty.
People with Intellectual disabilities are the invisable people of our society, the institutions closed and people now live in community houses but don’t have enough money to live as part of the society. $41 a week is all they have left from their benefit to cover Dr’s dentists,chemists,clothes, transport, presents, holidays and pocket money.
Support the workers to get a decent livable wage
May be Cactus Kate would like to come and share a shift with me ,
Get some dirt on her hands, do the walk then she can do the talk.
I,m a male same low pay as the rest
I have been reading this discussion with interest. Some folk obviously have no idea of the reality for getting employment if one is older.
I am a qualified librarian with much experience in a job I love. I completed a B.A. in 2003, after nine years of working full time and studying in any spare time. I was in the top 5% of graduates that year. For several reasons(bullying was one of them), I decided to leave my job and moved to the South Island.
After applying for so many jobs I lost count, I made the decision after a year to move back to Auckland. During the S.I. sojourn, the only employment I got was 3 weeks filling pottles with pre-grated ‘parmesan’ cheese.
Four weeks after returning to Auckland, I applied for and got a job further north – housekeeping for 10 old folk in a residence for the independent elderly. While my job has its rewarding moments, it is boring, with little job satisfaction and poor pay. Even if the pay was good, the nature of the job won’t change.
I sometimes talk with the women who ‘do’ for the residents here. None of them enjoys the work. None of them would do it if they had other options.
I have had several interviews for library positions but at 62 years old, have pretty much given up hope of finding work which I will find stimulating and challenging. And before someone questions my self belief, or CV, or interview skills, I always get comments (just before I am told I haven’t been successful) from those who have headed the interview panel that my CV is wonderful, that I am articulate and thoughtful and interview well. I have applied for other jobs which I know I am capable of but seldom even get the courtesy of a reply.
I have to work full time. I feel trapped. Kactus Kate, until you have walked in anothers shoes, don’t presume to know the answers
I get tired of hearing work done mainly by women described as a “calling” or something that requires “really special” or “dedicated” people. It’s patronising and was used to keep nurses’ pay down for more than a century. After all, if you have a vocation why would you want more pay? Disability support work is a job like any other and people take it on (though generally not for long) for their own reasons. It is physically and emotionally demanding work (I know, I’ve done it) and grossly underpaid. It’s a classic outcome of the contracting-out model that is designed to cheapen the cost of labour and ensure no-one is accountable for lower standards and an exploited workforce. Labour should have fixed it but didn’t. Thank goodness we have unions.