New Nuffield Trust analysis of NHS doctors' pay

With more resident doctor strike action scheduled to begin later this week, the Nuffield Trust has published an updated explainer on NHS doctors' earnings.

The analysis shows that:

- For the year to March 2026, resident doctors starting postgraduate training (foundation year 1) will have a full-time basic salary of £38,831, and we estimate they will receive around £45,900 in total NHS earnings

- Even after accounting for these latest uplifts, average real-terms earnings for all doctors in 2025/26 still fall behind 2010/11 levels by between 4% and 10%

- Since 2023, the pay scales of resident doctors and consultants have started to increase again in real terms following a fall over the decade or so prior to this

- for 2024/25 – the average NHS earnings of doctors in their first year of work was above the median, so more than the majority of all workers in the wider economy, but below the (mean) average wage.

- Specialty registrars' average NHS earnings were higher than the salaries of nearly nine in 10 of the wider workforce, while GP partner and consultants' NHS earnings sat between the 98th and 99th percentiles.

Read the full explainer on our website here.