Health workers have been paying less than their counterparts in other parts of the NHS, but their wages have stagnated in recent years, according to new data.
Nursing graduates in England have made a net wage of just over £7,500 ($9,100) over the past year, the latest data from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence shows.
Nurses have made an average of £8,100 over the same period, compared with £11,100 for non-Nurses, the Office of National Statistics said in a statement.
A separate study found that NHS workers making less than £22,000 per year in 2015-16 are paid a rate of just under £9,000.
However, that’s only if they work at hospitals and are paid on a per-hour basis, rather than an hourly basis, as some employers would have to pay workers based on how many hours they work per week.
This would mean some of the workers would have less money to spend on food, housing and other basic necessities.
Nursing is currently the most popular job in England, accounting for about 13.5 percent of all jobs, according the ONS.
However it is the second-most-compensated profession in the UK after doctors, after earning a base salary of £23,900.
Nursers make up just over 7 percent of the workforce.
The ONS said nurses earn an average base salary between £23k and £27k, with some earning more.
“The ONSE data shows that the pay of nurses has fallen, although the number of nurses in employment has remained relatively stable, so it is likely that the trend will continue,” the ONSE said.
“Although pay has fallen for the majority of nurses, the pay gap is widening, and the gap has narrowed for many other jobs in recent months.”
The ONS data showed that the average base-salary for a full-time nurse in 2015 was £22.70k, but that rose to £23.60k in 2016.
Nursing students are paid more in the NHS than other professions, the ONSA said, although this is because their salaries are higher, in part because of the higher level of training they have received.
It said that the majority (59.7 percent) of nurses have completed their course and are working full- or part-time in the workplace.
They are also less likely to be employed in the same industry as a GP, pharmacist or other medical professional, the report said.
A further 40.1 percent of nurses had completed their postgraduate training, the highest proportion of any profession, and 31.5% had completed a degree, it said.
“Nurses in the public sector have not experienced an overall reduction in their base salary over the last three years.
On the contrary, the average NHS pay in 2015 stood at £24,300,” the report added.
Since 2010, average NHS salaries have increased by 6.3 percent, the fastest rate of increase in the profession.
In the same time, the median salary for NHS workers in England has been stagnant, the government said, at just over $50,000 a year.
That was down from $60,000 in 2015, and is less than the median base salary in Britain, which is £53,300.
While the NHS pay gap has widened in recent weeks, the gap for nursing graduates has widened even further, the statistics showed.
Median base salary for graduates of nursing education is £37,500, while for graduates with no postgraduate education it is £55,000, the study found.
More than 3,300 nurses have been laid off in the past 12 months, the data showed.
Of these, 2,100 have been nurses, 1,300 have been teachers and another 1,100 are physiotherapists.
Workers are still eligible for an NHS redundancy pay package worth up to £10,000 ($15,000), with some companies offering it for up to 15 years, the figures showed.