Pay satisfaction among junior doctors plummeted in 2022, shows staff survey

Satisfaction with pay among NHS staff has fallen sharply in the past 12 months, particularly among junior doctors, results1 from the annual NHS staff survey show.

Findings for 2022 show that the number of junior doctors satisfied with their pay has halved in a single year—from 34.5% to 17.1%. This plummeting satisfaction comes against a backdrop of an industrial dispute that will see junior doctors strike over three days from 13 March.

Billy Palmer, senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust, said it was significant that pay satisfaction among NHS staff overall (26% in 2022) is now 12 percentage points lower than before the pandemic (38% in 2019) and has fallen substantially in the past year—from 33% in 2021. He said, “This is not a surprise—our analysis2 …