Poor pay makes social care workers feel like second-class citizens – the next government must fix this
Katherine Chapman Director of the Living Wage Foundation
OPINION
Though the Covid pandemic highlighted the vital importance of care workers, social care remains one of the most precarious and poorly paid sectors in the UK. The next government has an opportunity to change this.
Despite the demanding nature of care work, administering medicine and dealing with patients with complex needs, new analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that over 400,000 adult social care workers in England are paid below the real living wage – currently £12 in the UK and £13.15 in London. This means that 43% of adult social care workers in England are earning less than they need to live, rising to 80% in London.
I have too frequently heard care workers talk about feeling like second-class citizens. In recent polling of 2,000 workers earning below the real living wage, more than half said they regularly visit food banks and skipped meals. How can we expect care workers to look after others when they’re not paid enough to properly feed themselves?
The main barrier to better pay is the limited public funding for social care services. These services are primarily commissioned by local governments but delivered by private and third-sector employers. Years of budget cuts have trapped care workers in a cycle of low pay and high stress, and caused a recru
