AIBU to think a potential 2% pay rise for the NHS staff is ridiculous?

[Sunflowers68]

NHS England is cautioning against giving employees raises of more than 2%. is A band 2 salary is now only 10p above minimum wage due to the recent increase in the minimum wage. Surely, a 2% increase is insufficient for a job this challenging? If you are still working in the NHS, can you share your reasons why?

This! Lawyers and judges also got their pay rise without having to strike. In what world is a well below inflation pay 'rise' acceptable. Teachers are also being offered 1% at present. The government honestly just doesn't give a shit. They'll clap and draw rainbows but fuck all else.

How many people with the DB pensions would rather have more pay but pay into a DC scheme?

Reading this with interest, NHS band 7bsraff, contributions for pension now 10.7% so not small. No pay rise been top of band for years, every time I ask for rebanding there's no money, so I'm now refusing to do anything that's 8a based. I'm in my 50s so won't leave as I'm lucky I'm in the old scheme for most.of.my pension and due about £ 15000 a year from that. The new scheme is dreadful. We can't recruit or retain NHS staff, young physios all going private to the money and no nights on call with standby of £ 11 a night ( yes a night) . It been brought home to me how badly we are treated and I'm trying to work out the perks as Son just gained a graduate role. Pay slightly less than a band 5 but, company car, free parking ,private health, pension and shares plus free gym, milage and laptop from the get go. Annual Leave 33 days a year same as mine plus BH and Xmas shut down. I pay £20 a week to park at work or rather on the car park new work that runs a shuttle bus as staff can't park on site. If I was young I'd be going, just counting down the years here.

I work for the NHS because I can provide quality care to people that most people would not be able to afford to pay for, and I believe everyone has the right to good mental health, regardless of salary.

I voted for the 5% pay rise last year because I bought the story we were told. And got freelance work which means I am working the equivalent of 6 days a week to afford my bills. Suddenly after the pay rise was imposed (the nursing union never accepted it) there was suddenly money for bigger pay rises for lot of other groups.

So fuck their 2% - strikes are coming.

I agree with a lot of this. Personally...

1. I'm unlikely to be able to retire but I keep paying in in the hope...

1. Never really needed to use it beyond normal short term sick, e.g COVID d&v etc but know many that have (and some that have royally taken the piss)

1. Maternity is good, if you come back

1. Agree with the flexibility. Not benefited personally but know plenty that have

1. Yes. I started at band 2, am now 7. Non clinical

1. Plenty of theoretical opportunities but actually being given time to take them is another matter

1. No satisfaction for me. My role means I often get constant grief from staff and patients alike.

I should also say I work well above my 37.5 hours a week (unpaid) and often feel tearful and ground down by it all.

I stay because I don't have the mental energy to find anything else. Plus as a perimenopausal woman it doesn't feel like a great time to look elsewhere

it depends which department you work for, my own department doesnt open bank holidays.
though no closing for christmas period, unlike some private sector roles.

I appreciate your input. It appears that higher taxes and pension payments swiftly offset any increases in NHS salaries. It makes sense why people are leaving.

I've been in the NHS for almost 10 years. I love my job, i love being able to support and care for women and their families, to give them the care they should get. I especially love caring for those who face challenges getting the care they are entitled to. I'm great at my job, not blowing my own trumpet but I am.

However I don't think I will stay on the NHS much longer. The NHS runs on the good will of the people who work for it who work above their contacted hours and go without breaks. I have gone into work on my days off at the request of the ladies I care for. We don't get paid for extra hours but instead write it in a folder where we are meant to take it back as TOIL but we never get the opportunity to. I'm fed up of the politics and of the lack of recognition from those above. It doesn't matter how hard you working the NHS you are not rewarded for it. I get the same pay as those that give very little and are shit at their job.

I think everyone is sympathetic to people whose salaries have not kept pace with inflation. It's definitely much harder to lay the bills and keep your head above water, but public finances are extremely challenging - I wouldn't want to be wrestling with them.

Each 1 percent uplift on the NHS salary bill costs the taxpayer £570m. The country has 93 percent of GDP in national debt due to Covid largely and there's no promise of any increase in productivity for that expenditure. So if we want to give very generous pay rises in the public sector we will have to pay more income tax to fund pay increases. I think around 2/3rds of the population are in favour of tax increases so willing to see that taken out of their pay packets (I presume that includes public sector workers like NHS employees). But at the moment neither the Government or Labour Party are prepared to raise taxes. Labour have promised to match Govt spending rules for at least 2years.

The NHS staff get incredible perks though that wyou won't get in ANY other job: great pensions, enhanced maternity leave, 4 weeks of paid parental leave per kid a year (not sure if this has a cap on amount of kids you have).... So it's not just about the wages...

The civil service and armed forces have similar conditions. The armed forces pension is non contributory.

Where do you get the 4 weeks paid parental leave? Which NHS trust offers that?!

My trust offers 1 week of 'special leave' a year, which can be used to cover attending funerals, taking a single day to arrange care for a sick child/relative, attending child's gp appointments, etc. The other local health trust does not offer this and staff have to make up any missed time, or be unpaid for it.

They definitely deserve a pay raise. Most places who employ alot of people on NMW have had to freeze pay for those just above in order to afford the increase in NMW so it's good that the NHS have been able to give an increase to everyone.

You absolutely do NOT get 4 weeks of paid parental leave each year!!!
NHS have the same right as any other British employee to request up to four weeks unpaid parental leave if they have a child under 16. The manager has the same rights as all other employer to turn it down.

The pension nowadays is not "great" it's a pension, yes, but it sopped being great quite some time ago.

Enhanced maternity pay isn't 'exceptional' and you do get it in many other jobs - 74.1% of UK women get this.

Source:
https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/enhanced-maternity-pay/

@Moreorlessmentallystable the pension brigade make me laugh too. People in NHS pay a decent amount and it's deducted off their wage as a result. I'm early 30s who knows if retirement will be raised to 70 by then not only that is there any guarantee of even living that long? It's hardly anything to rave about.

The *perks" of the NHS keep being highlighted as an amazing thing and as others have said above these aren't just the NHS and actually aren't always as good as they sound. I was looking at a job in the private sector and the benefits there were a lot more attractive (to be fair I was sold at the mention of free car parking and gym membership 🤣)

How do you think it works in the private sector? Only generally we have no guarantees as to what we will end up with come retirement?? Plus public sector get very generous pension contribution matching (is it 22% in NHS? and as someone has said upthread the forces is non contributory) but in private sector many companies do the minimum 5%?? matching with no guarantees what you will get on retirement, so actually if you want a decent retirement a) you have to be aware and proactive to this when young (and in private sector this is not spelt out to you at all) b) you have to put in a lot more of your 'headline' salary to compensate which reduces your salary further every month (but with none of the DB guarantees)

@HeresMyBreakdown if you are private sector why don't you just transfer your skills and come and join us at the wonderful NHS? What's stopping you miss a great opportunity?

Good one! I see lots of people complaining how good we have it in the public sector, but yet we are in a recruitment crisis in many places. I guess some people will only be happy when we have shit pensions to match our shit wages.

My personal view is that the Tories want to leave Labour a mess. They know that this tactic of very far below inflation pay rises caused a huge amount of industrial disputes last year and are wanting to hand over as many unresolved pay disputes as possible to an incoming Labour government so their first act has to be to increase spending to resolve them.

My personal view is that the Tories want to leave Labour a mess.

It’s pretty widely acknowledged that they’re salting the earth to leave Labour the biggest fuck up possible to sort out.

But nobody is arguing that private sector pensions are a perk, so saying the private sector isn't any better/is worse doesn't make any points at all. If people are going to argue the NHS pension is a huge perk they need to understand that while that used to be the case, it isn't now and there are real negatives to having your workplace pension linked to the state pension.

Private sector pay rises are worse than this most of the time so good luck with that idea (and pension won't be as good)

I think actually no payrise would be less insulting than 0.13%. It's like £50 for the entire year, and totally pointless.

Yes, lots of public sector workers think private sector will be much better and some jobs are of course, but many aren’t. Lots aren’t much higher in pay than public sector roles and there’s not the security, good pension or sick pay that public sector gets. The pay rises can be higher, but they also rely on the company doing well and often are performance related so some year you can get a lot, some years nothing, some years 1-2%. There’s usually no increments/spine pay points either.