As of July 1, salaries in healthcare are rising. This is good news, but doubts immediately arise as to whether the level of pay is appropriate for the work performed. In addition, there are differences in the salaries of doctors on a regular basis and those employed on a contract.
Anna Makarewicz, as a janitor, has her hands full every day, and she earns the minimum wage, so now she is happy that her minimum wage will increase to PLN 4,600 gross. This means an additional few hundred zlotys.
– PLN 300 is good, but it could be a bit more, considering the earnings and the work we do – says Makarewicz, a nurse at the St. Luke's Hospital in Bolesławiec.
A little more, or how much, for non-medical employees to be satisfied? Plus 500 zlotys would be useful – we hear.
– It seems to me that (the appropriate – editor's note) amount would be 5100 PLN. I'm talking about the gross amount and it seems to me that this difference would be okay – assesses Krystian Krasowski, president of the National Inter-Enterprise Trade Union of Auxiliary Personnel in Health Care.
However, additional money for lower-level staff would automatically mean higher expectations from the remaining employees.
What is the current minimum wage for nurses and doctors?
As of July 1, the gross minimum wage for nurses and midwives with higher education is PLN 9,200. For doctors: PLN 10,300. The difference between the two is too small – warn doctors.
– Today we had the board of the National Association of District Hospital Employers and we have already heard from our colleagues that the first group to show up, when it comes to pay rises and certain expectations, are doctors – says Waldemar Malinowski, president of the National Association of District Hospital Employers.
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The situation with doctors is more complicated, however, because there is a huge difference between those who earn the minimum wage on a full-time basis and those who earn more on a contract. A contract doctor can simultaneously earn money in a hospital ward, in hospital clinics and diagnostic laboratories, working many hours.
How does it look in the hospital in Bolesławiec, where the minimum wage is collected by the orderly Anna Makarewicz? – From what I remember from the invoices issued, I think that a doctor can earn values of several dozen thousand, even 80 thousand złoty in a month – says Kamil Barczyk, director of the Saint Luke's Hospital in Bolesławiec.
And this is not the last word of doctors of these specializations that are missing on the market. It happens that one doctor works not only in several hospital units, but also in more than one hospital.
– This accumulated remuneration in various units seems to have long exceeded the amount of PLN 100,000 – comments Jerzy Ostruch, president of the Multi-Specialist Provincial Hospital in Gorzów Wielkopolski.
Further increases in minimum wages are planned for next year.
Main image source: TVN24