Need help re wages

[hammerman]

I appreciate this question my have a lot of "ifs and buts", but hopefully someone can give us some guidance.

my wife has just taken over as manager of a residential care home. This is her first such job in this position having only been "deputy" in a previous home. She was taken on initially on £19k pa. which we felt was probably right considdering her lack of experience in this role.

However, in the next few months, she is going to be officially registered as a manager (enhanced CRB and with the care quality commission) and will hopefully complete her level 5 Diploma in leadership for health and social care.

Now she has turned this home round, the residents seem happy, the place is nice and cheery and the staff seem happy.

But this will obviously have to be reflected in her pay packet soon. The company has paid for her diploma which is fair enough but what do you think she should be on now ? As this is a private home, there's no national scale so to speak of so therefore no guidelines. The manager she took over from was on £25k pa and made a complete hash of things.

She's not the sort of person to go bursting into the owners office demanding a payrise but feels with the responsibilities etc, this should reflected in her pay packet.

Any help is welcome

Many thanks

HM

[boxtops]

Hammerman, I think your wife needs to grit her teeth and do just that - speak to her employer about the improvements and the developments in her own skills, and ask when it's going to reflect in her pay. The independent sector doesn't follow pay scales such as in the NHS, it's like GP-land, people are paid what the employer will pay, and £19K doesn't sound a lot for the responsibilities she now has. Is she in touch with other care home managers, where she could do a straw poll and ask what they are paid? If she is good and successful as you say, she could be in demand if vacancies for home managers arrive in another location, which could be the stick her employer needs to offer her a pay rise. IMO she could ask that a rise could be implemented once she gets her qualification - that would be a good time for a pay rise, once she's passed that award. There would seem to me to be no reason why she shouldn't be on the same pay as the previous manager - unless of course the employer can no longer afford that amount.

[boxtops]

^ PS - does she have an annual appraisal? That would reflect her achievements to date, and targets for next year - and is a useful tool in demonstrating personal and professional development.

[VHG]

>>>She's not the sort of person to go bursting into the owners office >>>demanding a payrise

Asking for a payrise does not have to be an agggresive banging the table type of thing.

When she has a meeting or review with the management she should just make it clear that as she is now taking on more responsibility she expects more money to compensate for that.

Does not have to be done in an aggressive way.

If they are not forthcoming with a pay rise she needs to let them know she could go elsewhere and earn 19k without all that added responsibility.

If she is that good they wont want to lose her so will stump up the money.

[factor-fiction]

It may also help her case if she collects and presents some information (e.g. from job ads) about rates of pay for similar roles in similar organsations