Public sector workers and pay: your questions answered
Nurse, teacher, police and civil service numbers and pay, NHS vacancies, the 2026/27 pay awards, firefighters and the resident doctors' dispute.
Are public sector workers paid more than private sector workers?
In April 2025, median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were £807.67 in the public sector and £752.28 in the private sector, according to the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025, published on 23 October 2025. Over the year, public sector earnings rose 5.3% and private sector earnings 5.4%.
Related: How are public sector pay rises decided? · What is the average salary in the UK? · Are wages rising faster than inflation in the UK?
How much are teachers paid in England?
The median full-time equivalent salary for classroom teachers in state-funded schools in England was £51,047 in 2025 to 2026, 4% higher than a year earlier, according to the Department for Education's School workforce in England statistics, published on 4 June 2026. The median for headteachers was £86,803.
On 1 July 2026 the Education Secretary accepted in full the School Teachers' Review Body's recommendations: a 3.5% award from September 2026 and 3% from September 2027, according to her written statement. She said starting salaries would exceed £35,000 by September 2027.
Academies can set their own pay, and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate arrangements. Average salaries also depend on how many teachers are at the top of the scales, so they can rise faster or slower than the award itself.
Related: How many teachers leave the profession each year? · How many teachers are there in England? · How are public sector pay rises decided?
How much do NHS nurses earn?
Newly qualified NHS nurses in England start on Agenda for Change Band 5, whose entry point was £31,049 in 2025 to 2026, before the 3.3% rise from April 2026, according to the pay tables in the NHS Pay Review Body's 2026 report. The top of Band 5 was £37,796, and Band 6, common for more experienced nurses, ran from £38,682 to £46,580. Pay points in Wales are 1.5% higher.
Including overtime and unsocial hours payments, nurses and health visitors in England earned £42,119 on average in the 12 months to October 2025, with average basic pay of £37,525, the report's NHS England data show.
The current pay points, after the April 2026 rise, are on the NHS Health Careers pay table. Scales are full-time salaries, and many nurses work part-time. For the latest award, see the 2026/27 NHS pay rise.
Related: What is the NHS pay rise for 2026/27? · How many nurses are there in the UK? · What is the average salary in the UK?
How much do police officers earn?
Police officers in England and Wales received a 3.5% pay rise from 1 September 2026, below the 3.9% recommended by the Police Remuneration Review Body, the Home Secretary told Parliament in a written statement on 15 July 2026. London Weighting and the London and South East allowances rose by the same 3.5%.
Before that award, median basic pay for full-time constables was £40,200 in the year ending March 2025, and median total earnings including allowances and overtime were £46,000 outside London and £56,000 in London, according to the review body's 2026 report. Median basic pay for chief superintendents was £106,500.
Police pay in Scotland is set separately. For officer numbers, see how many police officers there are.
Related: How many police officers are there in England and Wales? · How are public sector pay rises decided? · How many police officers are there in Scotland?
Are resident doctors still on strike?
The dispute between the government and resident doctors in England ended in June 2026, when the British Medical Association's resident doctors committee agreed a deal on pay and training places, the Health Secretary told Parliament in a written statement on 29 June 2026. A majority of resident doctor BMA members voted to accept it in a referendum.
The statement said there had been 21 days of strike action in the previous year. It said the deal would leave resident doctors on average 35.2% better off than four years earlier, with pay structure reform, reimbursement of some exam fees and up to 4,500 new training places over three years.
Health is devolved, so disputes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are separate. For strikes across all industries, see working days lost to strikes.
Related: How many working days are lost to strikes in the UK? · What is the NHS pay rise for 2026/27? · How long is the NHS waiting list?
What is the NHS pay rise for 2026/27?
NHS staff on Agenda for Change terms, more than 1.4 million people, received a 3.3% pay rise from April 2026, the Health Secretary told Parliament in a written statement on 12 February 2026. The government accepted the NHS Pay Review Body's recommendation in full, and the award was paid from April for the first time in six years.
The statement put the rise above the OBR's 2.2% inflation forecast for 2026 to 2027. It also said separate funding would support reforms to the pay structure, prioritising the lowest bands and graduates, with any agreed increases backdated to 1 April 2026. The review body's report covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland sets NHS pay separately.
Doctors and dentists are covered by a different review body. For how the process works, see how public sector pay is decided.
Related: How much do NHS nurses earn? · How are public sector pay rises decided? · Are resident doctors still on strike?
How many nurses are there in the UK?
The Nursing and Midwifery Council's register held a record 867,935 nurses, midwives and nursing associates able to practise in the UK at 31 March 2026, 14,228 more than a year earlier, according to its registration data reports. Growth slowed to 1.7% in 2025 to 2026, from 3.3% the year before, mainly because fewer internationally educated professionals joined.
Not everyone on the register works in the NHS. NHS England's NHS Workforce Statistics count staff employed by trusts, and the NHS Pay Review Body's 2026 report, using those figures, gives 371,494 full-time equivalent nurses and health visitors in England in October 2025, 1.9% more than a year earlier.
Check whether a figure is a register count, a headcount or full-time equivalent, and whether it covers the UK or England only. For all NHS staff, see NHS staff numbers.
Related: How many staff work for the NHS? · How many vacancies are there in the NHS? · How much do NHS nurses earn?
How many vacancies are there in the NHS?
In England the NHS vacancy rate for nursing and midwifery staff was 6.0% in September 2025, down from 7.5% a year earlier, and 7.4% for other Agenda for Change staff, according to NHS England data summarised in the NHS Pay Review Body's 2026 report. NHS England publishes the figures each quarter as NHS Vacancy Statistics.
The same report gives an overall vacancy rate of 7.3% in Northern Ireland in September 2025, up from 6.4%, and 5.4% in Wales in June 2025. It notes that trusts have introduced stricter vacancy controls in response to financial pressures.
Vacancies measure posts being actively recruited to, so when posts are frozen or removed the rate can fall without staff numbers rising, a point the review body makes. Compare vacancy rates with workforce counts such as nurse numbers.
Related: How many nurses are there in the UK? · How many staff work for the NHS? · How many job vacancies are there in the UK?
How many civil servants are there in the UK?
The UK Civil Service employed 557,825 people, or 523,795 full-time equivalent, at 31 March 2026, according to the Cabinet Office's Civil Service Statistics 2026, published on 29 July 2026. Five departments, Justice, Work and Pensions, HMRC, Defence and the Home Office, employed 67.8% of the total.
The Cabinet Office says the ONS quarterly public sector employment figures are the measure to use for tracking changes in size; they put the Civil Service at 557,635 on the same date. Civil Service Statistics add detail on grade, location, age and diversity: 75.5% of civil servants now work at Executive Officer grade or above.
The Civil Service excludes NHS, council, school, police and armed forces staff; see public sector employment. Northern Ireland has its own civil service.
Related: How many people work in the public sector in the UK? · How much do civil servants earn?
How much do civil servants earn?
The median salary in the UK Civil Service was £37,820 at 31 March 2026, up £2,140 (6.0%) on 2025, according to the Cabinet Office's Civil Service Statistics 2026 bulletin. Medians ranged from £28,020 in the administrative grades to £95,540 in the Senior Civil Service.
Women's median salary was £36,740 and men's £38,970. Salaries are full-time equivalents, so part-time staff are counted at what they would earn working full-time. The figures cover the UK Civil Service; the Northern Ireland Civil Service publishes its own pay statistics.
A median salary can rise because the mix of grades changes, not only because of pay awards. Most civil servants' pay is set by departments within a central pay remit, while the Senior Civil Service has its own review body; see how public sector pay is decided.
Related: How many civil servants are there in the UK? · How are public sector pay rises decided? · What is the average salary in the UK?
How many firefighters are there in England?
Fire and rescue services in England employed 30,601 full-time equivalent firefighters on 31 March 2025, 0.5% fewer than a year earlier and 14% fewer than a decade before, according to the fire and rescue workforce and pensions statistics published on 4 December 2025.
The ten-year fall was driven mainly by on-call firefighters, down 26%, compared with 9.4% for wholetime firefighters. The release also covers control and support staff, diversity, injuries and attacks on firefighters, and pensions. Responsibility for fire statistics moved from the Home Office to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 1 April 2025.
The figures are for England only; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish their own. New editions appear in the workforce statistics collection.
Related: How many people work in the public sector in the UK? · How many police officers are there in England and Wales?
How many teachers leave the profession each year?
38,600 full-time equivalent qualified teachers left state-funded schools in England in 2024 to 2025, about 1 in 12 (8.5%), down from 40,700 the year before, according to the Department for Education's School workforce in England statistics, published on 4 June 2026. There were 2,400 more entrants than leavers.
Of teachers who qualified in 2024, 89.7% were still teaching a year later. For those who qualified five years earlier the figure was 75.4%, and for those who qualified ten years earlier, 57.7%. The Education Secretary told Parliament the leaver rate was the lowest since at least 2010 outside the pandemic years.
The figures cover state-funded schools only, so a teacher moving to an independent school or another UK nation counts as a leaver. For total numbers, see how many teachers there are.
Related: How many teachers are there in England? · How much are teachers paid in England? · How many pupils are in schools in England?
These answers say where official figures are published and how they are defined. They give no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request.