Nurse vs tradie: Insane salary gap exposes major problem in Aussie workforce
The glaring pay gap between Australian health workers and tradies has been exposed in viral TikTok videos shot in Brisbane with more than 8.5m views.
QLD News
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A tradie has shocked the internet after revealing his weekly wage, bringing to light a major issue in Australia’s nursing industry.
Popular TikTok group getahead.app, who investigate pay rates and job satisfaction across South East Queensland, has revealed a major discrepancy between nurse and trade wages in two viral videos.
Interviewed on Queen Street Mall, a scaffolder reported a weekly take home of $3000 for a 56 hour work week, while a GP clinic registered nurse received $45 and hour, roughly $1800 a week, full-time.
Nurses’ Professional Association of Queensland president Kara Thomas criticised the government for effectively picking favourites.
“This discrepancy shows a significant undervaluation of the critical and lifesaving work that nurses perform,” Ms Thomas said.
“It is deeply insulting to recently hear the Premier proudly state that our nurses have some of the best pay and conditions, while knowing they have taken an effective pay cut due to inflation.
“Meanwhile, he provides jaw-dropping incentives to his CFMEU buddies, who are paid double time even when tools are down.”
In April, Premier Stephen Miles defended the controversial Best Practice Industry Conditions policy which would see CFMEU members receive an additional $1000 a week travel bonus and double pay for emergency workers in rainy conditions.
CFMEU Cross River Rail workers walked off the job the same month amid increased pay demands, elevating entry-level salaries to more than $240,000 a year, according to a source familiar with the demands.
“Pay is absolutely a disincentive and is contributing to the mass exodus of nurses from the profession,” Ms Thomas said.
“We have received feedback from nurses who say they nurse as a hobby now because they can earn more doing administrative work in construction.
“Unless nurses are appropriately recognised for their contributions and paid accordingly, the slow collapse of the system is inevitable.”
In getahead.app’s video, when asked what advice she had for people wanting to get into the industry, the registered nurse replied “don’t”.
Combined, the two videos have more than 8.6m views and more than 3000 comments.
“$45 an hour is a joke for an RN! We need to pay them so much more!” one commenter wrote.
“25 years nursing and just gave back my registration! Enough is enough of the bad pay for long hours and abuse,” another said.
“I’m a scaffolder in Australia 3k a week is easily made with overtime involved, dunno why people can’t believe that,” one user wrote.
“2024 goal: find a scaffolder,” another commenter added.
The Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union has called on the state government to commit funding for 11,800 additional full time nurses and midwives to 2029 in the upcoming budget.
“The QNMU continues to campaign for increased pay and entitlements in the private sector including GP clinics,” QNMU secretary Sarah Beaman said.
“Nurses in GP clinics play an invaluable role in supporting the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders and deserve to be recognised and compensated for their contributions.”
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