Low pay data sparks demand for review

Childcare industry leaders have called on the Government to review pay and subsidies in Scotland.

Figures published last week by the Scottish Executive revealed that more than one-third of childcare workers in Scotland's private sector were paid less than 5 per hour, barely above the minimum wage of 4.50 an hour for those over the age of 22.

Although public sector nursery nurses are currently locked in a pay dispute with local authorities, their average pay at 9.50 an hour was the highest in the childcare industry. This compared with wages of 6.20 an hour in the voluntary sector and 5.80 in the private sector.

Carol Murray, research officer with the Scottish Low Pay Unit, said the childcare industry sometimes barely offered employees enough to live on. 'A lot of the private sector in childcare misunderstand the point of the minimum wage - it was intended as a safety net, but many are using it as a standard pay rate. 'It's indicative of how people value the work done by childcare workers. It's a huge responsibility and that is not reflected in the pay rates. Policymakers need to look at how we value work that is traditionally seen as women's work. 'There is the assumption that women automatically know how to do it and can cope with the demands of the job, but this does not mean that they should get low pay.'

Patricia McGinty, a director of the Scottish Independent Nurseries Association, said the average salary in the private sector seemed low because nursery owners were unlikely to include their own salaries in survey responses. However, she acknowledged that there were problems with low pay and said one reason was that local authorities often would not pass on all the childcare subsidy allocated by the Scottish Executive.

Mrs McGinty gave the example of an allocation of 1,400 per child where the day nursery could see 1,020 and have to ask the parents to make up the difference. She said that local authorities hold back some money for training, even if nurseries already provided such training themselves.

Mrs McGinty said, 'Local authorities should pass on more of their childcare budget to the private sector, or central government should broaden the criteria for childcare tax credits. In order to increase staff pay we would have to charge more, because childcare tax credits do not really help middle-income families.'

The voluntary sector also called for action on low pay. Rosemary Milne, chief executive of the charity One Stop Childcare, said, 'UK-wide, we need to review pay in childcare, because the pressure is going to get overwhelming. We are going to lose the good workers to other types of care with higher pay.

'The era of low-pay childcare must end. It is incompatible with the notion that there is a career path or any prestige in it.'

She added that charity project leaders were under pressure to keep costs down because of their limited grants, and some did not award an annual pay increase for two or three years. 'You cannot allow staff costs to rise,' she said.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Pre-School Play Association said its research had shown the voluntary sector's pay was below that offered by local authority-run centres. She added that by allowing staff flexible hours, training opportunities and locally available groups, the sector had managed to maintain recruitment levels.