Trades Union Congress calling for a wage boost in social care
The TUC say it will lead to an economic boost for areas.
New research published today by the TUC provides a local breakdown of the financial benefit to the care workforce, and the wider economic benefits, of raising wages to a fair minimum of £15 per hour across the social care sector.
There are 1,790,000 posts in social care, but around 165,000 of these are vacant. The vacancy rate increased to a record 10.7% in 2021/22.
The shortage of care workers has led to a surge in the number of people waiting for social care assessments, and millions of hours of commissioned home care going unprovided.
Low pay and job insecurity are the main cause of the recruitment and retention crisis.
Nine out of ten care workers earn less than £15 per hour and many care workers are paid less than the real living wage (£10.90).
Almost a quarter (24%) of workers in the sector are employed on zero-hours contracts.
The TUC’s research finds that a £15 minimum wage across the social care sector would mean:
• An annual full-time wage of at least £29,250 for care workers.
• Pay rises for 541,700 care workers across England.
• Pay boost for high numbers of women workers (who make up 79% of care workers) and BME workers (who make up 31% of care workers), helping to reduce gender and race pay gaps.
The union body is calling for the cost to be met by the Treasury, rather than local authorities that remain cash-strapped following cuts since 2010 to the overall funding they receive from central government.
The net cost would be substantially lower than the £5.9 billion upfront requirement to bring pay up to £15 per hour for all care workers. This is because the Treasury would benefit from higher tax returns and reduced in-work benefits payments, and from the economic impacts of the additional consumer spending.
The TUC research calculated which local authorities would gain the strongest economic boosts relative to population size.
West Midlands local authorities in ranking order, along with their annual economic boost:
- Stoke on Trent - £51 million
- Shropshire - £58 million
- Herefordshire - £33 million
- Sandwell - £59 million
- Telford & Wrekin - £31 million
- Solihull - £34 million
- Wolverhampton - £41 million
- Birmingham - £162 million
- Coventry - £47 million
- Warwickshire - £80 million
- Worcestershire - £79 million
- Staffordshire - £112 million
- Dudley - £40 million
- Walsall - £30 million
Alongside a £15 minimum wage in social care, the TUC is calling for ministers to take the following action to improve care work and the quality and reliability of care services.
Here's what the TUC are calling on:
• Establish a sector Fair Pay Agreement to negotiate minimum standards of employment in social care covering all social care workers.
• Ensure good employment conditions for care workers, including proper sick pay and ending zero-hours contracts.
• Develop a new National Social Care Forum to coordinate the delivery and development of services and agree a new workforce strategy.
• Launch a long-term, sustainable investment plan to fund high-quality social care employment and services.
• Reduce the role of private sector providers and move towards insourcing of care services.
TUC Regional Secretary Lee Barron said: “Most families need social care services at some point. And we all want to know our loved ones will receive a high standard of care. But that’s only possible if social care jobs in the West Midlands are paid well enough to attract and retain the right people.
“We’re calling for a £15 per hour minimum wage across the adult social care sector. This will reduce staff turnover and help fill the thousands of vacancies in care services in the West Midlands.
“There’s another upside. Our research shows that raising social care wages to £15 per hour will have wider economic benefits where care workers live and work. When they spend their higher wages, local businesses in the West Midlands will get a boost. And that will support job creation and higher wages for other workers too.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Most care workers are employed by private sector providers which set their pay and terms and conditions, independent of central government.
“However, we have raised the national living wage by 9.7% to £10.42 an hour for workers aged 23 and over, and are working to reduce vacancies in the sector.”