May Day for Nurses... the REAL issue

Why the hell are the nurses that 'hard up' anyway?

Life for nurses in the US is an underpaid overworked hell.. but not THAT underpaid.

PS: Everything's connected.

PPS: How much has Tony Benn kicked in? Good old Georgie? Red Ken?

PPPS: Maybe Obama and Hillary might like to find a way to....

 

With respect, perhaps you need to look into the history of the public sector workers in the UK before asking such a broad question. In comparison to nurses in the UK, the average US nurse is well off. Not including the fact that the standards of living and the economies are also different. Unless you've lived life in the public sector over there, you have very little chance of ever understanding it.

 

I'd say the US nurses are definitely not underpaid. I've got an aunt in Florida and she is on 80k a year, plus overtime at crazy wages per hour. Whereas UK they are on 20 grand or so.

 

perfectly correct andyns.

Add in the cost of living calculations, and that 40 K USD (20 K GBP) gets reduced back down to 20K USD or even less. Example, a 2 bedroomed house in Dorset, with just enough room to park a car in the front garden, and very little rear garden, now goes for 225K GBP, that 450K USD. The same property over here is less than 100K USD.

So the REAL issue is that the UK nurses ARE hard up, overworked, underpaid and very under-appreciated. Even with london-weighting, it's still not enough to sustain any decent standard of living.

Until commentors can get their heads around what it's like in the public sector, it's better not to even comment on it. It's just a can of worms.