NHS nurses across the UK have voted to strike, citing pay cuts in real terms due to inflation. These cuts are not limited to nurses but may affect them more than other higher paying professions.
Average NHS nurse wages in real terms have fallen by 8% since 2010. An average of £35,680 was paid to nurses in the year to April 2022, which equates to a decrease of more than £3,000 from a previous decade after adjusting for inflation.
The depression in nurses’ salaries is part of a broader trend across industries and job categories: NHS doctors, secondary school teachers, police officers, MPs and the chiefs of the FTSE 100 have seen the value of their pay packages shrink due to inflationary pressures.
Britain as a whole has experienced a decade of wage stagnation: annual profits for the public sector were 6% lower in 2022 than in 2010, after accounting for inflation. This year’s high inflation has pushed private sector workers 2% less than they were 12 years ago.
While NHS nurses’ salaries have been cut by 8% on average, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says some experienced nursing roles have cut their wages on real terms by as much as 20% since 2010. period, averaging £71,089 per year.
Other public sector workers have also felt wage pressures over the past 12 years. Police officers saw their total annual salaries drop by 14%, earning an average of £44,211 in 2022. Secondary school teachers (£41,722 in 2022) underwent a real 13% cut.
High inflation means that even people in jobs with regular wage increases experienced wage cuts in real terms compared to 2010. Members of Parliament are paid 3% less in real terms in 2022 than they did in 2010 despite their salaries being increased most of the time. The past decade, ten years.
CEO pay has also fallen since 2019, as the economy has been hit by Covid-19 and Brexit. The average FTSE 100 CEO pay fell 14% in real terms in 2021 compared to 2010.
Conversely, sales and retail assistants have seen their salaries increase in real terms over the past decade, although they still earn significantly less on average than people in other professions, including NHS nurses.