Low wages, unstable schedules ... in healthcare?

For many workers, healthcare employment is going the way of fast food and retail: unstable schedules, punitive employers, and rigid management. Nursing assistants, overwhelmingly women and relatively low-paid, are hardest hit, according to University of Massachusetts sociologists Dan Clawson, PhD; and Naomi Gerstel, PhD, whose new book, “Unequal Time,” was published earlier this week. “Across the health sector, work has become increasingly unpredictable,” Clawson said during an NBC News interview. Unpredictable scheduling—which may guarantee a certain numbers of hours per week, but not on a fixed, predictable schedule—and rigid sick-leave policies have hit low-wage healthcare workers the hardest. However, unpredictability is “creeping into the work lives” of nurses and other health professionals, he said.

Source: NBC News