Doctor take-home pay in the UK after tax, 2026
Few British careers put you into the 40% band as quickly as medicine does. By Foundation Year 2 it is already biting on overtime. What follows is the complete picture of net pay at every NHS grade.
Grade by grade: what NHS doctors keep in 2026
The 2024 strikes forced a serious overhaul of junior doctor pay. Every figure here follows the 2026 schedule and includes the 4.99% uplift applied in April 2026. Pension goes to the NHS Pension Scheme at somewhere between 7.1% and 12.5%, depending on what you earn.
| Grade | Gross Salary | Monthly Net (before pension) | After Pension |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation Year 1 (FY1) | £40,190 | £2,726/mo | £2,488/mo |
| Foundation Year 2 (FY2) | £45,994 | £3,036/mo | £2,750/mo |
| ST1-ST2 (Core Training) | £54,499 | £3,421/mo | £3,028/mo |
| ST3-ST6 (Specialty Registrar) | £61,825-£70,425 | £3,777-£4,182/mo | £3,300-£3,640/mo |
| ST7-ST8 (Senior Registrar) | £76,582 | £4,463/mo | £3,845/mo |
| Salaried GP (BMA standard) | £78,699-£118,759 | £4,559-£5,941/mo | £3,930-£4,975/mo |
| Consultant (entry point) | £113,565 | £5,801/mo | £4,900/mo |
| Consultant (top of scale) | £150,569 | £7,078/mo | £5,935/mo |
Everything here is basic salary. Junior doctors normally add out-of-hours pay and on-call supplements on top, where an uplift of 30% to 50% is common. Pension contributions run at 7.1% below £27,000, 9.3% between £27k and £51k, and 12.5% above that.
Consultants and the trouble with £100,000
Nothing about consultant pay is misread as often as the stretch between £100,000 and £125,140. Across those £25,000 the effective charge is a 60% marginal rate, and here is why:
- Income tax at 40% (higher rate) = 40p per extra £
- Personal allowance tapers away at 50p per £2 earned above £100,000
- Combined: you keep just 40p in every extra £ earned in this bracket
By £113,565 basic, a consultant has lost the personal allowance outright, having paid an effective 60% across everything between £100k and £125k on the way there. That is precisely why salary sacrifice into a pension is so widespread at this level, since every pound diverted saves 60p of tax.
Taking £113,565 gross without any sacrifice leaves roughly £5,801 a month. Sacrificing enough to fall back under £100,000 produces a broadly similar monthly figure while sending a great deal more into the pension, and plenty of consultants arrange things exactly that way on purpose.
The consultant pension: what it costs and what it returns
Above the relevant thresholds a consultant pays 12.5% of earnings into the NHS Pension Scheme, so £113,565 of salary means £14,196 a year going in. In return:
- Defined-benefit pension: 1/54th of career average earnings per year of service
- A consultant working 35 years at average earnings of £120,000: pension of ~£77,000/year
- Employer contributes 23.68% on top - so the true employer cost is ~£27,000/year extra
- Index-linked for life, survivor's pension, no investment risk
Abolishing the lifetime allowance and lifting the annual allowance to £60,000 in 2023 made NHS pension accrual at consultant level far less painful than it had been. Consultants at the top of the scale still need to watch the annual allowance closely, especially anyone holding benefits from the pre-2016 scheme.
How doctors are spread across the pay range
| Percentile | Gross Annual | Monthly Take-Home (before pension) |
|---|---|---|
| P25 (FY1-ST2) | ~£45,000-£54,000 | ~£2,980-£3,400/mo |
| P50 Median (GP / mid registrar) | ~£85,000-£95,000 | ~£4,650-£5,140/mo |
| P75 (Consultant mid) | ~£130,000 | ~£6,200/mo |
| P90 (Consultant top + supplements) | ~£160,000+ | ~£7,500-£8,000/mo |
Private practice income not included. NHS consultants with significant private work can earn £200,000-£400,000 total. Source: NHS Digital, BMA pay circulars 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Grade decides almost everything here. An FY1 on £40,190 keeps around £2,726 a month before pension comes out. A salaried GP mid-career on £85,000 keeps roughly £4,975 a month on the same basis, and a consultant on £113,565 about £5,801. The 12.5% pension contribution taken on top of all three is quietly building a guaranteed retirement income.
The 40% band arrives early in a medical career. An FY2 on £45,994 who works real overtime is already paying it above £50,270, and the supplements most training grades receive carry them over the line anyway. By ST3 a substantial slice of income sits in the higher rate. Consultants and GPs above £100,000 then meet an effective 60% rate across the £100,000 to £125,140 band.
On the BMA recommended scale, which runs £78,699 to £118,759 in 2026, a salaried GP keeps roughly £4,559 to £5,941 a month before pension, or £3,930 to £4,975 after the 12.5% contribution. Partners are a different matter entirely, since their income follows practice profitability, list size and local contracts. Some report net earnings well past £150,000 and others under £70,000 once practice costs are paid.
Purely on money, British medicine is weaker than its reputation suggests, particularly early on. A graduate qualifies at 23 or 24 carrying £55,000 to £60,000 of student loan across tuition and maintenance, earns £40,190 as an FY1 and reaches consultant pay somewhere around 35 to 38 after twelve years or more of training. Meanwhile a software engineer starting at 21 and earning £70,000 to £120,000 by 30 banks considerably more through that decade. The case for medicine rests on reaching consultant or partnership and staying long enough for the NHS pension to crystallise, and at a 12.5% employee contribution against 23.68% from the employer, that pension is remarkable in absolute terms.