On Monday, Bill Shorten (pictured) promised the Australian Labor Party would give a big pay increase to child care workers if they win the election on 18 May.
He said they would boost the average total wages of all child care workers by 20 per cent above the award rate over eight years.
That would bring the average ‘entry level’ hourly rate for child care workers from $21.68 up to $25.98 (pictured) – and increase their average salary by up to $11,300.
“This is an investment in pay equity for a female-dominated industry – a fair reward for a workforce that has about 96 per cent women, and has been undervalued . . . for too long,” said Mr Shorten.
But the organisations that represent Australia’s 360,000 aged care workers – the second lowest-paid group under child care staff (which is also over 85 per cent female) – were quick to question why they weren’t being given the same attention.
At first Mr Shorten said other low-paying industries (including aged care) deserved higher wages, but by the next day he had completely ruled out a Labor Government-funded pay increase for our sector.
“I want to pay a compliment to our aged care workers. They do a lot of work with a lot of vulnerable people. I think that we need to invest more in aged care generally, but I think let’s have the Royal Commission [first].”
The Commission will finish in April 2020 – a full year away.
So why child care?
With the election looming, all major parties are making announcements that they think will get them the most votes.
Labor thinks supporting child care workers will get them better numbers than aged care – and it makes sense.
When Mr Shorten gives a pay increase to child care workers (with an average age of just 33 years), he’s reaching a big audience – young working parents and grandparents of the 1.3 million Australian kids in child care, plus the staff themselves.
But in aged care, we have only 200,000 residents, and staff and family members – most of who are over 50 (on average).
Older people tend to vote for the same political party every time and don’t switch sides – so Labor knows it’ll be much harder to swing voters in the aged care sector, but could pick up numbers in younger groups (like child care staff).
Unfortunately, it seems Mr Shorten might not be giving more money to aged care workers because he doesn’t think they’ll give him a vote in return.
A sad thought.
