What will happen if nurses and other professions don't get their pay rise?

[malificent7]

The country has come to enough of a standstill as it is. I fully support them btw....do they keep striking?

Not all nurses earn £25k. Many more earn close to the $80k figure you quoted than you perhaps realise. I used to know one who is quite senior and earned £60k (some years ago now), and if you include the very generous pension you pretty much get to that $80k salary in the US.

That being said, I’d like to see many more nurses on this pay level, not just the senior ones. It’s a really tough job and this needs to be reflected in the pay.

We could do with a chancellor of the exchequer like you, @AelinAshriver !

You'd get my vote.

Because there would be no money to give the politicians their rises.

I’ll seriously considering joining an agency. Most days I work alongside agency staff on a much higher wage than me and get told that they can’t do a lot of the job because they are agency.

Most nurses don't become senior nurses. Most nurses stay band 5 for all of their careers. Top of band 7, which is a ward sister, is £47k. So, no, many don't earn close to $80k. £60 is band 8b. You won't find any of those working as a staff nurse on a ward. That is consultant level. Not the average nurse.

@Usernamen what generous pension? In NHS I think you pay a decent chunk something like 12.5 percent from your salary. Nurses often working till 60 which isn't easy for nurses your body slows down.

I'm in two, I quite like seeing different hospitals, doing different skills. I've worked on a surgical ward for 18 years, and rarely do medical. So it's a good opportunity to brush up on those skills. It's given me loads more confidence in my own practice, as you are out I do your comfort zone. Plus you know if you don't like a place, you never have to go back. And it's made me realise that everyone is in the same boat and the grass is not greener!

They will continue to strike I think. Some will leave for alternative employment. @Thelnebriati it would cost £27 billion to give nurses these pay demands. Where would it come from? It cost a fortune to give benefits claimants and pensioners a cost of living match pay rise. I guess the government only had one lot of money and chose to give it to benefits claimants and pensioners. They could have chose 5.6 percent for the lot which was average pay across private sector. I suppose then none would be happy. Civil servants only got 2 percent. I don't think Teachers, firefighters or police will get huge cost of living pay rise either. Anyone that gets paid from public purse is easy target for government. They are trying to keep a lid on inflation so B of E can stop having to increase base rate affecting most people's mortgages.

Always worth remembering that this government have;

Blown a £30 billion hole in the economy with trussenomics.

Spent £38 billion on test and trace.

Spent £9 billion on useless PPE.

Spent £11 billion in over paying interest.

Lost £40 billion in tax revenue from Brexit.

Spent £15 billion on projects described as wasteful or duff (with £4 billion of that going to companies with links to tory mps).

They're very good at finding and spending money when it suits them and it should be blatantly obvious that the only reason there "isn't any money" for nurses or rail workers is because isn't doesn't suit the tories grand privatisation plans.

They better get that pay rise!

I imagine they will bring in more overseas nurses and treat them like shit until they leave too. Nurses deserve more.

Just wondering if a nurse goes to work for an agency do they continue to get as much pension payments paid into their pot? Do agency nurses also get the same rates of sick pay? I'm not asking to be contentious I just thought maybe they might get less pension and sick pay but I may well be wrong? It seems weird to be paying souch into pension pots of NHS workers but but paying enough for them to live on. Perhaps it is time to offer NHS staff a choice of a bit less paid into pension in exchange for more to live on now.

Some unions offer daily payments from a hardship fund but you have to evidence that you are in financial hardship.

Thanks for the helpful detail. It sounds like pay needs to shift down a few bands! I think £60k for an average nurse is about right for outside London. The question is how do we make it happen without privatising the NHS, as the poster above suggested?!

I presume it’s like being any type of contractor - there’s no paid annual leave, no sick pay, no paid maternity leave, etc.

Can any locum nurses confirm?

@BadNomad
I thought nurses salary started at £27k. Is this not true? Where does the 19 percent on £25k come from?

The government is trying to cripple the nhs so we all go private and their mates make a profit. There’s plenty of money, as @Thebestwaytoscareatory has pointed out. Nursery are caring roles so they think women, because let’s face it, this is 90% women affected and therefore a woman’s issue, should just suck it up because we’re supposed to nurture and care and smile for pin money and a pat on the bum. The nurses aren’t asking for enough imo, any issues arising from the strike are
on the governments conscience.

No.

You have to remember the agency costs are the equivalent to the subsidy the public purse pays to employ a nurse.

Teachers are striking next. Voting has already taken place amongst union members and the result will be announced in the new year.

I think by that point the Govt will have to take negotiations seriously for all public sector workers, because there will be none left in work!

They will leave, people will vote Tory anyway and the NHS will be finished.

Can I ask a possibly really stupid question ....

If nurses are successful will all of Band 5 get a payrise to match? Or will nurses be moved up a pay band?

A school mum acquaintance mum was delighted she got a pay rise as a mental health nurse, 7.5% here is Scotland. She was wondering whether to take her family on holiday or low it on something else but the tone was quite flippant to my mind.
im glad for her but I reckon them at her wage rise will probably be ‘blown’ on the gas and electric bills. I think nurses are quite well paid really in comparison to many female dominated professions.

Once enough nurses leave and the NHS stops, literally then something will be done

Trouble is, that will not happen overnight

I have no objection in paying more tax if I knew it would go to the right people, not just into a General Coffer

Also patient expectations must be lowered, the NHS can’t cure every I’ll 😳

Always seems to be money in the coffers or on the magic money tree for interfering in wars, "defence" armaments/planes, or spaffed on useless projects such as HS2 (£44.6bn and counting)Track and Trace (£22 bn initially and another £15 bn since - for what???), PPE contracts for mates, bail out for Bulb (£6.5bn, how did it cost that?)and on and on..... Barristers recently went on strike for a few days and got a 15% pay rise, so double digit rises are possible ( I realise there are a lot fewer CPS and Legal Aid barristers than nurses).

Nurses and support staff will leave, or just do the basics. Morale willbe at an all time low. People don't often appreciate just how many hours over shift doctors and nurses put in and don't get paid for. It is decided later if you might get some overtime pay. Even all the Tory MP's and their wealthy friends who can afford to "go private" could be caught out as in the UK private hospitals don't have any emergency facilities. Serious issues after surgery get taken to NHS.

No European countries seem to be training enough medical staff, or treating those they have well. This article in The Guardian yesterday was really interesting. For example, GP's and paediatricians are striking in Spain where there is a 700,000 case backlog of surgery and there is unrest and severe staff shortages in France (especially of GP's - sound familiar?), top spenders Germany and even Finland!
www.theguardian.com/society/2022/dec/14/a-ticking-time-bomb-healthcare-under-threat-across-western-europe

I don't think they expect to get 19% tbh, but they may as well start asking high