70,000 nurses and midwives in NSW just won pay rises of up to 28% after two years of fighting — including three statewide strikes and a hearing that produced 17,000 pages of evidence.
Just to prove what those of us in the care sector have known for a long time: this work has been undervalued. And the workforce doing it is mostly women.
The NSW Industrial Relations Commission found the nursing workforce — 90% female — had been paid less than the work was worth, and acknowledged the real possibility that gender had something to do with it.
That finding matters beyond the hospital.
I work in disability and aged care at Kinship Uniting Services in Colebee, Western Sydney. Our support workers — the people who show up every morning to help a participant with their routine, who notice when something has shifted, who build the trust that makes real support possible — sit under the federal SCHADS Award. Their equivalent review is already underway at the Fair Work Commission.
The nurses’ case made the argument that this is women’s work, paid below its value, for too long.
That argument doesn’t stop at the hospital door.
Disability support workers. Aged care workers. Community services workers. Same workforce pattern. Same undervaluation. Same essential service. Different legal framework.
I want to see the momentum from this decision flow into that conversation.
The care economy is infrastructure. The people running it deserve wages that say so.
Congratulations to the nurses and midwives of NSW. And to every support worker in our sector — this fight is yours too.
— Aishah Shah Director & Care Coordinator | Kinship Uniting Services kinshipunitingservices.com | 0437 733 744 | Colebee, Western Sydney