The starting salary of a newly qualified nurse should be over £35,000.
With the pay of NHS workers continuing to fall behind, we at NursingNotes are keen to ask: How much do you think NHS workers are worth?
When adjusted for inflation, the pay of a Band 5 Nurse has fallen in real terms by around a third since 2008.
The starting salary of a newly qualified nurse should be over £35,000, but instead, the salary has fallen significantly behind to £28,000 due to a decade of real terms pay cuts and public sector pay austerity.
It comes after NHS workers voted to accept just a 5% increase earlier this year, and the next NHS pay round is just weeks away from starting.
NHS pay is ultimately decided by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Treasury, which commission the NHS Pay Review Body (NHSPRB) to provide them with “independent” recommendations.
With so-called “junior” Doctors demanding a whopping 35% to bring their pay back into line with inflation, NursingNotes is now keen to understand what NHS workers think nursing and other health unions should be campaigning for.
A decade of real-terms pay cuts.
According to the grassroots campaigning group NHS Workers Say No, a decade of poor pay is causing major issues with the recruitment and retention of nurses.
Official figures show falling student nurse numbers and an increasing reliance on an overseas workforce.
Co-founder Holly Turner, explained, “As we prepare to enter another pay round, NHS Workers Say NO will intensify our campaign around pay, safety and staffing. Thousands of staff are still struggling to make ends meet whilst the recruitment and retention crisis continues to intensify.
“This Government refuse to acknowledge that demands for pay restoration across the board must be addressed in order to bring safety for staff and patients and tackle spiralling waiting lists.
Ms Turner continued, “We refuse to accept their arguments that ‘there is no money’ when they have just written off 15 billion pounds worth of PPE corruption and continue to offer billionaires tax breaks.
“We will continue to fight for pay restoration and escalated strike action if that is what it takes to make the government address the crisis.”
