Wages: Why are auto mecahnics paid more than child care workers?

Question

An auto mechanic is responsible for a replaceable material possession. A child care worker is responsible for an irreplaceable human being.

Discuss.

Answer 1

basically what Blah said

Q. what does this have to do with GWS?

Answer 2

To be an auto mechanic takes some sort of training. Taking care of young children just takes common sense. It is supply and demand. There are more people who have the skills to take care of children than there are people who know how to fix a car. Supply and demand does not care about the value your job has to society, it cares about how many people there are fit to do the job.

Edit: The careers that pay low aren't inherently like that. They pay low because so many people flock to them, and so many people flock to them because they are easy to get and they require little to no training. Only 20% of Americans have college degrees. This is why people with college degrees tend to get paid higher than people without them. There are millions upon millions of unskilled workers who can fill the position of childcare worker, there are comparably only a handful of people who are willling to go to multiple years of medical school to become a doctor. This is why doctors get paid so high and childcare workers get paid so low.

Answer 3

Because of day care workers are willing to work for less than what auto mechanics are willing to work for.  

If nobody would watch your kid for less than $150,000 per year, that's what they would be paid.  But, lots of people will take a fraction of that.   So, that's what they get paid.

Likewise, mechanics are willing to work for less than RNs are willing to work for.  Nurses are willing to work for less than mechanical engineers.

This is in turn driven by what people are willing to pay for the service.

Why not start a movement that pays more for daycare if you want to see them make more money.

Answer 4

Auto mechanics require much more technical expertise. Vehicles are complex machines. The chemicals in vehicles are more hazardous to your health than cheerios and vomit. They handle expensive equipement and not many people have the expertise that a mechanic has.

Child care workers are easy to come by. There is far more demand for mechanics. Frankly, transmissions are more complicated than children. In a free market, supply and demand is what matters.

Answer 5

OK.. It might be nice for day care workers to be paid more. But here is the cold reality.

    If they are paid more it will cost more to enroll kids into daycare.

The higher the cost the more some parents simply will not be able to afford it.

      It will or could result in higher unemployment, increase in welfare usage. Single parents will be hard hit if they couldn't afford the enrollment bill.

Answer 6

It's obvious that Americans value things over people-that's why we'll pay more money to fix our car than we'd pay someone to take care of our kids or our parents. Supply and demand my you-know-what. Working with people is almost always paid poorly unless you get a masters or ph.d (like social workers or psychologists). Working with things (ie  computers) get paid more with less education-you only need a bachelors to get paid a ton of money to work with computers. Gee-haven't women usually worked with people and men usually worked with things? Hmmm.

I read about it years ago that women are encouraged to go for jobs in the pink-collar ghetto: jobs that women "usually" do because women are "naturally" good at them-and they just happen to be low-paying and have no career path. My parents wanted me to be an elementary school teacher or nurse (that was it) and I first went for something that would have required a masters or ph.d and later decided to pick a more "male" dominated occupation (computers) so I had a better chance of being paid a decent wage without all the years of education-plus I liked it. More women are choosing different fields-but women still are pushed into "traditionally" female occupations which are usually paid poorly-unless demand is absolutely incredible-like nursing right now. Who knows-maybe we'll see the same thing happen for teachers and child care and elder care workers and they'll finally be paid a decent wage.

Answer 7

Supply and demand, most people know how to watch kids to the level that folks are willing to pay.  Not many can fix cars to the level people are willing to pay.

Answer 8

Imagine a world without auto mechanics. Imagine a world without child care workers. Now which one seems more likely to go down in flames, anarchy and destruction of civilization?

Answer 9

It has to do with people being too cheap. They want care for their children but aren't willing to pay a decent amount for it. As a result, day care workers aren't always the best and brightest people around. That's generally the type of people who are willing to work long hours for low pay. You get the same situation in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Many of those people who work there have criminal records and histories of substance abuse.

Answer 10

Childcare workers don't have any risks involved. My dad was a mechanic and screwed his back up for life. It is complicated and long hours. Don't compare child care to mechanics.

Answer 11

Mechanics are paid for performance.

The more mufflers they change, the more money they make.

Teachers do not want pay-for-performance.

Also, why do we assume that teachers should make more than anyone else in society? Teachers are often used as pawns in gender politics and politics in general. If you're feeling underappreciated, get a new job! Mechanic perhaps! I also find it sexist of you to devalue the work of a mechanic. How do teachers get to work?

Answer 12

The same thing with sports players. Why are they paid more than fireman, pr policemen, or teachers? It is ridiculous.

Answer 13

The free market determines wages.  Many housewives do childcare as a way to stay home with their own kids.  That keeps prices low.  Also child care does not require much education.  Auto mechanics do not make great wages either.

Answer 14

The way our economy works is that people are paid according to how rare their talent is. The rarer the talent the higher the pay.

Even though childcare is VERY important the fact is that fewer people are capable of fixing a car than doing childcare. At a push virtually everyone could look after a child but relatively few people can fix a car.

Childcare workers need to demonstrate that they can look after children a lot better than the average person if they want to be paid more.

Answer 15

It's called the free market.

Answer 16

Because auto mechanics require a much greater degree of expertise and experience.

It's a lot harder to change a camshaft than a diaper.