How much do nurses actually earn?

Yahoo

4 days ago

Nurses are threatening to go on strike after rejecting the government's pay offer.
Nurses are threatening to join their resident doctor colleagues in taking strike action after rejecting a pay offer from the government.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned its members will be balloted on industrial action if the government fails to improve the proposed 3.6% pay increase for 2025/26 in England.
The RCN represents hundreds of thousands of nurses across the NHS in England.
According to the union, 91% of members voted to reject the pay award on a 56% turnout, with more than 170,000 staff taking part.
It warned the profession faces widespread vacancies, stunted career progression and years of pay erosion, and it urged ministers to use the summer to agree an investment plan or face a formal escalation to a dispute and a ballot on industrial action.
Professor Nicola Ranger, general secretary and chief executive of the RCN, said nurses feel "deeply undervalued".
Nurses in Wales and Northern Ireland were consulted on the same pay award and voted to reject it, according to the RCN.
The RCN warning over a potential ballot for industrial action follows a five-day walkout by resident doctors in England.
Resident doctors, represented by the British Medical Association (BMA), walked out after they rejected an average pay rise of 5.4%, the highest offered to any public sector worker.
The BMA has said it will not move on its demands for restoring pay to its historic levels, which they say has been eroded for more than a decade.
The RCN is making similar arguments.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "After receiving two above-inflation pay rises from this government, new full-time nurses will earn £30,000 in basic pay for the first time this year, so it's disappointing that RCN members are dissatisfied with this year's pay rise."
How much do nurses earn?
Currently, a first-year nurse accepting a new NHS role can expect to earn £29,970 per year on a band five wage, according to figures from NHS Employers.
The RCN claimed in July that a nurse's starting salary is £8,000 lower per year than if wage growth had kept up with inflation since 2010.
The government has noted that if their pay offer is accepted, it will mean a new nurse will start at a wage above £30,000 a year, but currently it sits below that.
Nurses working in London are also usually offered higher pay to reflect the higher cost of living, and this can be in the region of an extra £6,000 a year.
Nurses can then progress to £36,483 per year after four years' experience.
In per hour terms, a nurse starts at £15.33 per hour before rising to £18.66 per hour. The minimum wage is currently £12.21.
This will keep them in band five, and the RCN has noted many nurses stay at this level for decades.
The British Medical Journal said in 2022 that 43% of nurses were on a band five salary.
They say progressing up to band six often sees them accepting a role that doesn't routinely deal with patients.
According to the NHS, these roles often involve jobs like estates officer or health records manager.
Other medical professionals, like midwives and paramedics, automatically progress onto band six after they've gained a certain amount of experience, but nurses do not.
In order for nurses to progress, they will need to take on more responsibility, like taking up a leadership role.
An NHS employee on a band six wage can earn between £37,338 and £44,962.
Nurses can eventually progress all the way up to very senior roles within their hospital or wider healthcare trusts.
The top roles, like chief nursing officer, can be paid up to £111,740 on a band nine salary, but there is often only a handful of these roles across an entire healthcare trust.