Ask any experienced aged care worker why they stay with their agency despite the pay and conditions, and the answer is almost always the same. The work is there. Finding clients independently is hard. The agency solves that problem, and workers put up with everything else because of it.
What the agency actually takes
A typical aged care agency charges a family $85 to $115 per hour for a support worker. The worker receives $30 to $35. The agency keeps $50 to $65 per hour -- not for providing care, but for being the middleman. That margin is extracted from every single hour the worker works, for as long as they work there.
The conditions that come with it
Agency aged care work typically means rotating clients, inconsistent hours, last-minute changes to rosters, and no say over which families you are sent to. Workers build relationships with clients and then get reassigned. Families get a different face every visit. The agency prioritises filling rosters, not building care relationships.
Why workers stay anyway
Most aged care workers who are unhappy with their agency know exactly what the agency is doing. They stay because the alternative -- finding their own clients, managing their own bookings, chasing their own invoices -- feels harder than tolerating the pay. The agency has made itself the only practical option for consistent work, and they price accordingly.
What changes on a structured platform
Nest and Nurture Elder Care solves the same problem the agency solves -- client acquisition, matching, booking management and payment -- and takes a flat $20 per hour instead of $50 to $65. The worker gets the client pipeline without the agency taking most of the pay. A support worker earning $30 to $35 per hour through an agency takes home $55 per hour through the platform. An enrolled nurse earning $40 takes home $80. A registered nurse earning $50 takes home $120.
The bottom line
The agency model is not a fair exchange. It is a monopoly on client access, priced to extract the maximum the worker will tolerate. A flat-fee platform breaks that monopoly.
If you hold a Cert III in Individual Support (Ageing), a current police check, NDIS Worker Screening Check and current first aid, you have everything you need to apply.
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