Why are nurses always bottom of the list?

[TommyAndGinaAreHalfWayThere]

Why is it whenever public service pay rises are announced, nurses are always given less than other sectors.

I have nothing against teachers - I couldn’t do their job but why do they always get more than nurses? Genuine question.

It always seems to me that nursing is seen by the government as a “lesser job”.

Is there a wonder nobody wants to do it anymore? When I started university there were 300 students in our cohort. After one year this dropped to 200. By the time we graduated it had dropped to 150.

Off all the nurses I graduated with I would estimate that more than half have since left - myself included. I have a close friendship group from uni -

me - left after 7 years
friend 1 - left after 6 years
friend 2 - still nursing
Friend 3 - left after 4 years
friend 4 - left after 5 years
friend 5 - moved to Australia 😂

Is there any wonder? Over worked, under paid and generally treated like shit.

I think that must have changed, I left the NHS in 2012 and was looking at exactly the same band yesterday, it was at least 10K more at the top of the band, the bottom of the band now is more than the top of the band in 2012

No it’s not the same as pay is standardisedin the NHS.

if you work for company A but company B really wants your still set you can negotiate a better salary for a similar job There is no negotiation in the NHS.

The nhs is very different - the whole organisation has the same pay structure - it’s not like other industries where you can negotiate or anything outside of those bandings - so yes, you are stuck

I would beg to differ on this one, Social Workers generally always get lower than nurses! Sometimes by a considerable amount!

Don't agree at all. All NHS staff get great pay and benefits and pensions.
That's not to say there's still a lot wrong: having to pay for your degree for starters.
There are very highly skilled people getting less money and less respect working in care sector and nurseries.

Sadly that just doesn't happen in real life if you're going to do exactly the same job. Say you start your career on the tills in Sainsbury's then go to do the tills in Asda then go to do the tills in Tesco then finish your career on the tills in Morrisons, you'll be on pretty much the same money throughout your life (assuming inflation is taken into account).

There will always be the exception that prove the rule but there really are some serious misconceptions about how the private sector works. Why would any company pay more money than market rate? It doesn't matter what walk of life you're in, if you want more money you have to do more.

The reason for this could be two fold. The pay rise is dished out piecemeal so it may appear that teachers are always getting a pay rise.
The pay rise is not in line with inflation and so the cycle continues.

This was looked at this year because nurses wanted a separate pay spine in comparison to admin staff etc. Gov’t said ‘no’

1. Entry requirements are much lower than for medicine. Bigger pool of people who can do it = supply > demand.
2. Its a popular job that appeals to many young people.
3. The opportunity to fit a weeks worth of hours into 3 12 hour shifts can reduce your childcare costs which appeals to many.
4. Its easy to import cheap nurses from abroad.

Us in early years get minimum wage. I’d argue we’re at the bottom of the list too. I’ve never had a pay rise.

Don’t get me started on Doctors getting more.

I think if AfC staff and doctors had had inflation related pay rises for the last 14 years we wouldn’t be having this discussion. As it is doctors are down 22% and AFC not quite so much but still well into double figures.

That’s why we are losing staff to Lidl and Tesco. And ads that used to get 70+ applicants are getting 0.

cos the can and do take the piss! My husband works for the local authority and for the first time I can remember he is getting lower pay rise than me!

God, you again. Don’t you get tired of being such an enormous knob?

I'm a local authority social worker...no pay rise for us but nhs social workers have got one... we always have vacancies.. Wonder why!

You're only 'stuck' if you don't want to change or are not capable. You can't expect to be paid more for doing the same job (inflationary related increases excepted).

I think workload is part of the issue. Where job descriptions change beyond recognition when compared with the jobs we (general we) trained to do or initially applied for, pay expectations should to. For example a class teacher in 1995 had fewer responsibilities and duties than a 2025 class teacher. The job title remains the same. The job description/roles/duties do not remain the same. You should expect to be paid more IMO.

But We’re not talking minimum wage, unskilled work here, are we? Of course it happens in the private sector.

Yes, let's all race to the bottom.

Maybe private sector workers should be kicking up their own stink about shitty rises - we're all being conditioned to just be grateful for the scraps thrown our way. 3.6% when inflation has been hitting 11% within the last couple of years is absolute shite in real terms.

Depends what you mean by low. My husband is a radiographer and earns over £62k a year, 10 years from graduating. He paid off his student loans in 6-7 years. I think he’s well compensated for what he does. Pension is also very good, plus enchanted parental/sick leave.

Nurses on the other hand work so much harder, there are more of them so there are fewer opportunities for promotion and they have to actually deal with patients for more time. They rarely get breaks and leave on time. I’m not surprised we have a shortage and since the Tories got rid of grants, who wants to do it? Husband does being a radiographer is the best job in a hospital.

the pensions have been eroded too. After 35 years my current projection is £600pm (top band 6)

That’s terrible daddysgirlnot. Have you been part time for a lot of those years?

I see. So, in your view, it's OK to leave 'minimum wage, unskilled' (your phrase not mine. Apologies to those that she is insulting) workers on the same terrible earnings but not above average earning nurses. Interesting take...

Most private sector workers can't kick up a stick because most private sector businesses are not unionised. This is exactly why the public sector is perceived to have lower pay rises - the public sector is unionised and therefore we all get to hear about the pay rises. The private sector is mostly not unionised so nobody knows how good or bad their rises are. We must not assume that because the private sector are not kicking up a stink is because they're happy, it's just because they don't have the means to do it.

Was part time for about 12 years. However the scheme I’m in takes the best out of final 3 years. Have been full time for past 7 years.