*This suggests that the average full-time doctor in one of the BMA’s four junior doctor pay grades earned about £43,000 per year in basic pay—and significantly more if you include non-basic pay.
There are many different ways of using these figures to calculate an average hourly rate, and there is some uncertainty in the data, but in general it suggests a range of roughly £20-30 per hour.
These rates may be higher now, as they include pay from 2021/22, when salaries were lower than they are in the current financial year (not accounting for inflation).
None of these figures necessarily represent the pay of the junior doctors who are on strike, as BMA members may not be representative of junior doctors as a whole.
A BMA spokesperson told us: “Of course, our campaign is not suggesting £14.09 is the hourly basic rate for all junior doctors, as this title covers everyone from newly-graduated medics to people who have been working for 8-to-10 years or more as doctors.”
What about Pret’s figure?
We also contacted Pret a Manger, which confirmed that pay for a “team member” in one of its shops would increase on 1 April to £10.60-11.90 per hour, depending on location and experience (or £11.85-13.15 per hour with a performance-related bonus), and for a “barista” to £11.20-12.85, or £12.45-14.10 with the bonus.*
From the Full Fact article. Also worth noting that they divided the total over 365 days of the year to get to £14, which obviously is an 'unusual' was of doing it.
The pay isn't ridiculous for a new starter, especially given pension 3tc. Paying for your own training and quals, insurance etc isn't unusual either. However they would have an argument that working conditions within the NHS should be improved. Being paid more doesn't solve that.