Pay has been lagging behind the soaring cost of living. It’s time to fix this. Love for the job can’t pay the bills and we need to speak up and talk about what we are worth. It is very good news that the Fair Work Commission has topped up the wages of Assistants in Nursing and care workers in aged care by an extra 8 per cent on top of the 15 per cent it awarded last year – a 23 per cent increase overall.

The Commission’s ruling will set a new minimum award rate of $1223.90 per week for Certificate 3-qualified AINs. “The work of aged care sector employees has historically been undervalued because of assumptions based on gender,” the Commission said.

These increases are highly deserved with the increased responsibilities and additional training needed in aged care since the COVID-19 epidemic – a fact the Commission highlighted. These increases are formidable, deserved and a testament to the passion and commitment of our aged care members who have campaigned for them over many years.

Less impressive for aged care is the recent report of the Aged Care Taskforce, which in our opinion, failed to address the quality of care and workforce issues that are fundamental for the sector. The Taskforce failed to adequately address the need for greater financial transparency from providers.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety provided many examples of the profitability of aged care to the expense of vulnerable residents and workers. In our view the Taskforce recommendations will not improve the workforce shortages across the sector, nor will it address the quality of care being received within the facilities. There needs to be greater financial transparency from providers.

This is a totally reasonable ask when 75 per cent of aged care funding comes from taxpayers. The current reporting requirements are still too opaque to see where this funding is being spent.

Time for a reset on pay

The success of the work value case in aged care has encouraged the ANMF to pursue a similar case for the Nurses Award on the basis that nurses and midwives’ work has never been properly valued. If successful, the application would ensure the recognition of work value given to nurses and AINs in the Aged Care work value case, will be extended to all award-covered nurses, midwives and AINs with the 15 per cent just the beginning.

It will also contend that award rates are set too low, stemming from the historical, gender-based undervaluation of nursing and midwifery care work. Better pay for nurses and midwives in all sectors is not just about fairness, it is about necessity. It is also achievable. Cost of living pressures have been biting working people hard for some time.

The results of a recent inquiry initiated by the ACTU and chaired by former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Professor Allan Fels have been insightful about the origins of this crippling inflation.

Professor Fels found most of the inflation observed in the wake of the pandemic was a consequence of price gouging by corporations, particularly energy companies and supermarkets. His findings are consistent with international research that challenges the economic orthodoxy that says inflation begins with higher wages that are passed on to prices.

When workers ask for improved wages, this is often thrown at us by employers, governments and media. It no longer washes. Household costs have been soaring in other areas too as our investigations into housing affordability among nurses and midwives have found. Exorbitant rents and crippling interest rates for homeowners are hurting many of our members.

And in this tough environment the government has been startlingly insensitive by introducing parking fees for patients and staff. The cost-of-living crisis is part of the context in which we have put our proposed claim for a 15 per cent pay increase in the Public Health System for members to consider.

The other part, of course, is the need to recruit and retain the workforce we need to implement safe staffing ratios. Nurses and Midwives have been uncomfortable about talking about pay. But love for the job can’t pay the bills and we need to speak up and talk about what we are worth. As aged care has showed, when we do this, the evidence is on our side, and we win.