My daughter gets no sick pay – but a convicted MP gets paid in prison: how is that fair?

We’ve all heard of the gender and class pay gaps, but are you aware of the privilege pay gap?

Fair enough if not, and I admit, I’ve coined this phrase because two events in the last twenty-four hours have made me more than aware that such a gap exists – and that it is shockingly wide.

My 23-year-old daughter works in a nursery and loves her job. Until now she’s been lucky in that she hasn’t ever needed to take a sick day. She is resilient. She ploughs on. She knows the importance of consistency for the children and babies she works with. She cares for them immensely and like so many hard-working individuals, deserves to be recognised and valued. Until this week, she felt she was.

However, she’s currently housebound with a nasty case of flu. She’s asthmatic and struggling. She cannot get out of bed unaided, let alone get to work. But this morning, my daughter did try to go because the fear of not being paid was overwhelming. She didn’t want to let anyone down – and she recently received an extra electricity bill after a meter reading.

Sensibly, she didn’t go to work. Instead, she messaged me distraught, flipping between guilt about the children, and anxiety about her bills. In the end, I had to reassure her that I would pay her missed wages and would continue to do so until she was well enough to go back. As a teacher, I’ll admit to only now having recognised my own fortune in getting sick pay which increased with length of service. Naively, I thought everyone was as privileged.

In her role, my daughter gets no sick pay for the first three days of absence, which equates to a loss of roughly £400. After this, she needs a doctor’s note – not easy to acquire these days – before she can receive statutory sick pay, which is not enough. She cannot be the only one in this predicament.

On my way to work, and seething about her distress, I heard a news piece about how the MP Mike Amesbury, convicted for repeatedly punching someone in his constituency, will receive full pay whilst he is in prison because he has not resigned. Full pay. And for 10 short weeks of punishment, at a huge cost borne by the taxpayer – including my daughter and the man he punched.

In those 10 weeks, will Amesbury’s work pile up? Will anyone be unsettled by his absence? Will he have to worry about his bills being unpaid whilst he is away from his home? I doubt it. I can’t be the only person to be outraged by this state of affairs. I understand the need for businesses to ensure their employees only take sick days when truly necessary but it’s incredibly unfair how people are treated, especially as energy bills continue to rise and many people cannot afford the stability that comes from buying a home. Not a problem I imagine Mike Amesbury has.

I also wonder who is providing more value to society and why we all can’t be privileged enough to be paid for our worth.