Tradesmen Prices

[kiwigeo]

Something wrong with this country....people happy to pay a plumber $60 an hour to fix your shower spout but same people baulk at paying nurses a decent wage to keep them alive.

[MathewA]

I guess when you think about the expenses its not so bad.

$100 for a mechanic? I would fix my own car too if my mechanic charged that much.

Depending on how old your car is you'd have to buy the diagnostic computer to fix it. That'll run ya at least $4000. Add another $700 in tools and a few courses on how not to wreck yer car... $100 an hour doesn't see all that much anymore.

[MathewA]

Something wrong with this country....people happy to pay a plumber $60 an hour to fix your shower spout but same people baulk at paying nurses a decent wage to keep them alive.

Nothing wrong with it at all. No one forces anyone to choose thier carreer - nurses are free to go and do something else if they think their pay sucks.

Us in the trades have had to endure some real lean times; we don't complain we just get on with it and then try to make it up when things are good - like they are now. Nurses get paid for their job regardless of how the economy is going.

[kiwigeo]

Nothing wrong with it at all. No one forces anyone to choose thier carreer - nurses are free to go and do something else if they think their pay sucks.

Us in the trades have had to endure some real lean times; we don't complain we just get on with it and then try to make it up when things are good - like they are now. Nurses get paid for their job regardless of how the economy is going.

First off let me state I have nothing against trades people...except the ones who do shonky work or never turn up on time.

My comments have nothing to do with people being forced to chose their career. What I was pointing out was that the problem of poor remuneration for nurses is largely one of public perception. IMHO joe general public has little idea of what nurses really do and the conditions they work under. Untill that perception changes nurses will never get paid what theyre really worth.

Yes, youre right...everyone has the right to quit if they dont like a job....alot of nurses are doing just that and its one reason the health system in this country is heading for basket case status. The nurses that remain in the system do so largely out of a sense of devotion to their patients and this is taken advantage of by the health industry.

[kiwigeo]

Nothing wrong with it at all. No one forces anyone to choose thier carreer - nurses are free to go and do something else if they think their pay sucks.

Mathew, Ive just noticed youre in Canada. I think in your country youll find that nurses get paid a whole lot more than they do here in Australia and New Zealand.

[simon c]

Something wrong with this country....people happy to pay a plumber $60 an hour to fix your shower spout but same people baulk at paying nurses a decent wage to keep them alive.

I agree with your point about nurses being underpaid, but I'd like to point out that a plumber may charge $60 an hour but that does not equate to their hourly salary - an hourly equivalent may well be half that.

[nic]

At the risk of getting flamed, the family has had a few hospital stints in the last few months 3 to be exact and each time we go there, all we do is wait , wait , wait.
Now I don't mind waiting if everyone is busy but most of the time when I go and see what's up after 30 minutes of waiting when they said I'll be back in 5, I see all the nurses chating and laughing in their staff room.
They don't look that over worked or stressed !

I'm open to any explanation but I've yet to see the outrageous conditions in which they work in.

nic

[kiwigeo]

At the risk of getting flamed, the family has had a few hospital stints in the last few months 3 to be exact and each time we go there, all we do is wait , wait , wait.
Now I don't mind waiting if everyone is busy but most of the time when I go and see what's up after 30 minutes of waiting when they said I'll be back in 5, I see all the nurses chating and laughing in their staff room.
They don't look that over worked or stressed !

I'm open to any explanation but I've yet to see the outrageous conditions in which they work in.

nic

Gidday Nic,

Cant answer your question about why the nurses were chatting and laughing in their staff room.....I imagine if I was a nurse id probably spend some of my time in a staff room away from the blood and guts engaging in a bit of stress relief with my workmates.

As far as outrageous conditions go....heres what my wife puts up with at the private hospital she works in.

- badly thought out rosters...often home from a late shift at 11.30pm and out the door for an early shift at 5.30 next morning. In most states not letting a worker get at least 8 hours continuous sleep between shifts is against the law.
- absurd nurse to patient ratios. One nurse looking after 5 patients in an ICU ward.
- being expected to lift heavy patients by herself. Oh yes the hospital has a great OHS policy that states that two nurses are required to lift a patient with the use of a lifting frame. Trouble is the staffing levels on a shift a so pitifully low assigning two nurses to lift a patient is impossible.
- antequated equipment. The hospital is too stingey to buy in equipment that reduces the risk of needle stick injuries when handling syringes and IV needles. My wife has had 3 needle stick injuries in the last 3 years......
- a base pay rate of circa $30 an hour. Pitiful for someone with a Masters degree and over 20 years of experience. If it wasnt for the penalty rates during the weekend my wife would have quit along time ago.
- often has to work with agency staff who receive no orientation before arriving at the hospital. My wife has to deal with her patient duties as well as continuously monitor 2-3 agency staff.

Starting to rant here but you get the general picture.

[silentC]

Have to agree about nurses plus you can add teachers. Friend of ours is a registered nurse. She went to the UK in search of better pay. Our loss.

My solicitor charges $70 per 15 minutes. My company charges $135 per hour for the work I do. Fact of the matter is that the market determines the price. If no-one was prepared to pay $60 per hour for plumbers, they wouldn't charge it.

[gemi_babe]

Well I'm not prepared to pay $60 an hour, but I have too. No other choice. Everyone is doing it.

anyways... by 10am he hadn't showed. I ring him, his reply "OH yes, that unit you wanted was the wrong type, it was a side entry (yadda yadda yadda), and I haven't given it much thought after that.... give me an hour and I will call you back"

So for $60 an hour its great freakin service!!!!!!

Thats what bugs me the most! I wouldn't mind if the guy had actually shown some interest in the job, after all he will be getting paid.

I bet if I make him wait for payment, he wouldn't be so happy. But that is what I'm going to do.

Not happy Jan!

[gemi_babe]

The nurses thing.... they go into that chosen career knowing about bad wages. Then chuck a hissy fit when they are in the job... whats with that?

You and I might think the job is extremely hard, but to the nurses, once you have done your training, I guess the job, like any, is like riding a bike. Like plumbers, no job is too hard, it is to me, but to them its easy.

Same goes with the nurses.

[Iain]

The offer of cash can often yield some good results.

[Iain]

Pitiful for someone with a Masters degree and over 20 years of experience.

BUt just about every occupation today requires a degree or certificate, my niece proudly displays her Bachelor of Business Studies and works as a clerk (that was a requirement for the job), parking officers need a certificate in local law and administration, so the list goes on, this is not a critisism of a MA (I have one too as well as a Phd) but the whole tertiary qualification system has really become a left handed wank.
As a friend of mine puts it, we are becoming a nation of over qualified idiots, and that was in his thesis for Bachelor of Economics (which he attained despite that lampoon).
Next we'll have garbo's with a certificate III in Prophylaxis(sp), even bloody waiters need a qualification and I see there are retail certificates I, II and III.
Rant on :mad:

[silentC]

The nurses thing.... they go into that chosen career knowing about bad wages. Then chuck a hissy fit when they are in the job... whats with that?

You and I might think the job is extremely hard, but to the nurses, once you have done your training, I guess the job, like any, is like riding a bike. Like plumbers, no job is too hard, it is to me, but to them its easy.

Same goes with the nurses.

You're missing the point. It's not that nurses throw 'hissy fits', it's just the irony that we seem to be more prepared to pay big money for the things that don't really matter at the end of the day. What's more important than your health? Nothing! Without it, you can't enjoy all that other stuff that people are happy to pay for. I say give them more money.

[ndru]

...we seem to be more prepared to pay big money for the things that don't really matter at the end of the day.

Hmmm. What about:
- Medicare levy;
- Private health insurance;
- 30% subsidy on private health insurance;
- Federal and state taxes spent on public hospitals, clinics, rehabilitiations centers;
- PBS subsidised drugs;
- Workcover levy;
- Compulsory third party insurance;
- Charitable donations;
- Federal and state funding for medical education and research?

That's a LOT of money.

Then again, it is widely held that our health system is in "crisis" so I guess we really don't spend enough.

I say give them more money.

My turn on the soapbox!

Last July, RNs employed by our Government won 16.5% more pay over the next 3 years, with 6% effective immediately on 1 July '04. A range of other non-salary conditions were also agreed to such as extending night shifts to 10 hours + a 2 hour "handover" period to reduce the chance of two shifts being worked in a 24 hour period by one employee. I believe other States are moving in the same direction. Its fair to say they are getting more!

Having said this $35/hour base pay does seem low considering the risks involved (contagious diseases, shiftwork, seeing death and suffering). I'm not surprised people prefer other vocations. I don't think our senior constables are much better off, either, and they risk being shot. :eek:

Out of all the groups employed by our state the least sympathy I have is for is teachers. Maybe its because my sister-in-law teacher is always in my ear with the teacher's lounge song about how hard they work and no-one appreciates them. It probably more because they get paid substantially more than cops or nurses for substantially less contact hours and I can't see the need for a risk premium. At the end of the day I guess its about comparative union power. BTW, I don't think teachers don't have a difficult job - I just don't understand why they're ahead of cops and nurses.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, gemi_babe. Good luck with the plumbing! Personally, I'd invest in a stilson and a hacksaw.