The Scottish government is being pushed to go further on social care pay and bring in a £15 an hour wage for care workers as it sets up a national care service.

Research by the GMB union has found 98% of care staff surveyed believe they are not paid enough to reflect the demands of their job.

The Scottish government has committed to all care workers receiving the Real Living Wage, which is higher than the minimum wage and currently stands at £9.50 an hour. It said it was drawing up proposals for minimum employment standards in care “by the end of May”.

But one social care worker surveyed by GMB said: “I find that amount a ridiculously low increase for an industry that has had to keep on going right through the covid-19 pandemic, potentially risking ourselves, our loved ones and our service users contracting covid-19.”

Another added: “For the big responsibility we all have working in the care setting it is not showing in our wages and the government don’t seem to see this at all nor appreciate what we do for other people’s loved ones.”

Scottish Labour is urging the government to commit to the higher wage at the budget bill debate in Parliament tomorrow.

The party’s interim leader Jackie Bailie said: “That many private care providers continue to register eyewatering profits while their employees struggle to scrape out a life on low pay is something that should shame us as a nation.”

Earlier this month an independent review recommended a series of reforms to adult social care in Scotland, including the creation of a national care service that would oversee social care provision.

Labour says that these reforms should be accompanied with a further pay rise for care staff.

In 2016 the Scottish government announced it would fund the Real Living Wage for care workers.

But the process for getting the money to the frontline led to delays and a simpler national approach was used for the first time in 2020.

The head of the social services workforce regulator has previously said staff deserve more than the Real Living Wage.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “In light of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, we asked the Fair Work in Social Care Group, of which the GMB are members, to develop and implement proposals to embed fair work principles that will lead to better terms and conditions and more rewarding roles for the social care workforce.

“By the end of May we will establish a minimum set of standards for terms and conditions, which reflect Fair Work effective voice, what this fair work effective voice will look like and how it will be applied across all of our social care workforce.

“We have ensured adult social care workers receive the real living wage for waking hours and this includes those undertaking overnight social care support. We want to ensure there is no delay in the annual uplift being received by the workforce which is why, as a priority, we will seek to agree a national approach to implementing the real living wage for adult social care workers for 2021 and beyond."

Read more: Councils voice “grave concern” with care review; Government to accept care review recommendations; Pay rise for social care staff brought forward

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