Comment on Why exactly are nursing aids paid so poorly?
nerv@fedinsfw.app 4 days ago
And that is why child and elderly care should never leave the public domain.
These are essential services nowadays; the wide family support that once existed is crumbling.
Private companies do not care. The company exists to make money and generate profit, at any cost.
If the accounting of one single entity was made public, it would be horrendous to read. The profit margins are huge, the salary gap between floor personel and executives gargantuan.
aNemesis@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
This is such a low effort response. I worked on the board of Directors for my daughter’s daycare in the US for 8 years. Literally none of this is true. We are a non-profit and our audits are public. Feel free actually look for the accounting for a child or elder care facility and you’ll find plenty of them. You’ll find them anything other than horrendous. They’re boring and exactly what you’d expect them to look like.
Even without margin as a factor because we’re a non-profit we are still charging as much as my mortgage for an infant.
This might sound obvious but operating a care facility is expensive. Labor is the driving cost, by far, and what makes it so is legally mandated caretaker ratios. 4 infants per. 6 Toddlers per. 10 children per. Imagine if you were splitting just an infant caretaker’s salary four ways, without benefits or other costs. Literally federal poverty wages would be $700/month for you. Without benefits. Without facilities. Without supplies. Just a person’s full time supervision. And that person would qualify for SNAP benefits.
While there are definitely orgs focused on investor returns they’re not the root cause. Care is just expensive.
Don’t get all righteous at the people who dedicate their lives to caring for people in need. Even those in charge of the facilities can be doing it for the right reasons. Look at the government. Why aren’t we supplementing these critical services? In my state Medicare and education are already the top tax expenditures by far. You might be able to shift some $ between priorities but the real answer appears to be that we’re just not funding the government sufficiently for it to do all things for all people. If we don’t take advantage of the scale of government then we’re going to be paying for this stuff out of pocket.
It’s just expensive no matter how you solve the problem.
theacharnian@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
Productivity has soared since the 70s. Tax the fucking rich at 1950s levels. Then subsidize care work.
nerv@fedinsfw.app 4 days ago
Congratulations. Through you, we found the exception to the rule. Thank you.
Meanwhile, in my own country, what I replied is completely true and do I wish it wasn’t.
I had my grandmother in an elderly care facility, unfortunately, and I can tell you with no unease the floor workers are paid the minimum wage; if they work the night shift, they get a small increment, usually around 10%, to the base salary. While the board of directors, most of which have no true in the day to day working of the institution, earn at least double that pay, with the director of the institution earning above €3500, for a six hours day of work.
Meanwhile, on the childcare front, I have three separate institutions preying on the local public daycare, which is completely free, charging a rate based on the income of the couples or parents putting their children there, ranging from €60 to more than €200, not including transportation, which alone can be anywhere from €40 to more than €100. A couple earning both parents minimum wage can end up paying more than €300 per month. And the institution gets a stipend for each children from the state.
Although most of these institutions are non profits on paper, workers are paid minimal wage, by default, while directors get lavish pays and service vehicles, replaced yearly, while the other vehicles are run until the wheels fall off.
So, again, thank you. You showed the exception to the rule. And I am glad it exists. But it should be the rule, not the exception.
fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
This is why I care about automation, not because I think care work can be, but at the end of the day if we put our capital towards making it so everyday people had they needs met with less labor then we can more easily afford it, but also frankly taking care of our young and the old should be where you spend our collective wealth on. Imho at least