What are junior doctors paid? Who gets a wage of £14 an hour explained
Junior doctors, who are undertaking their most extensive industrial action on record, earn about £14 an hour, according to the British Medical Association (BMA).
The strike, which started this morning and lasts until Saturday morning, is part of a pay dispute with the Government.
The BMA has said junior doctors’ real-terms pay has been cut by 26.1 per cent since 2008, which would require a 35.3 per cent pay rise.
What junior doctors are earning £14 an hour?
The BMA estimates that first-year junior doctors working a 40-hour week earn a basic total annual salary of £29,384.
That works out works out to be a little over £14 an hour.
Doctors in their second foundation year are estimated to have their salary increase to £34,012 — about £2 more per hour.
However, these salary amounts are the basic rate and do not include allowances, extra amounts which are applied for duties such as working on weekends or on-call.
The minimum basic annual salary for junior doctors can reach £58,398, but this is not until they are in years six to eight of specialty training, which starts after the two foundational years.
These rates also only apply to doctors in England, with those in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland subject to different rates.
What are junior doctors asking for?
Junior doctors are striking for pay restoration, with the BMA saying that junior doctor salaries have fallen by more than a quarter since 2008.
The BMA’s junior doctor committee is asking the Government to return pay levels to what it was in 2008-2009, which would mean lifting salaries by about 35 per cent.
The Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, is insisting he wants to engage in talks with junior doctors but says their demands are “not fair or reasonable”.
A No 10 spokesperson echoed this, stating it would cost £2bn and was “completely out of step with pay settlements in other parts of the public sector”.