The Australian Aged Care Commission should consider the need to pay ‘fair and competitive wages’ to nursing and other aged care staff.

That was the main recommendation from the Productivity Commission in its Caring for Older Australians inquiry report, released on August 8, in a bid to improve attraction and retention in the embattled aged care workforce.

The PC report proposed the AACC recommend prices for care services, including the wages of aged care workers, to the Federal Government following independent analysis and for those recommendations to be made public.

The report also recommended the appropriate mix of skills and staffing levels for the delivery of those services.

“There is a role for government in setting prices for care services which enable employers to pay fair and competitive wages…Solutions also lie with aged care providers as they too have a responsibility for ensuring that they provide an attractive workplace,” the report stated.

The Australian Nursing Federation has criticised the recommendation for being too time-costly, with a three to five year turn-around, and has instead urged the Federal Government to inject $500 million from its 2012 budget to close the wages gap.

The Federal Government plans to consult further before rejecting or embracing the PC’s recommendations.

The 40-page chapter dedicated to the sector’s workforce estimated about 980,000 aged care workers would be needed by 2050.

The report found more than one million older Australians now receive aged care services and by 2050 more than 3.5 million Australians are expected to use aged care services each year.

It outlined statistics showing aged care employees involved in direct caring activities represent around 25 percent of all aged care employees in health and community occupations.

There were an estimated 262,000 people working in the aged care sector in late 2007, of these 175,000 provided services in residential aged care facilities and 87,000 provided aged care services in community settings.

Compared to the broader health and community services industry, residential and community aged care employees were more likely to be female, work fewer hours and be older.

The report discussed the workforce shortage, exacerbated by low wages and some workers with insufficient skills, and said there was a need to improve access to education and training and provide more professional development for staff.