NHS workers deserve fair pay for the vital work they do.

Nurses and other healthcare workers are working flat out every day to keep hospitals running. But despite all the government’s praise and claps for them during the pandemic, it refuses to pay them properly.  

On 15 December, 100,000 nurses in the Royal College of Nursing are on strike across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This comes after government ministers point-blank refused to negotiate.

Nursing salaries have fallen behind the cost of living for a decade. The pay rise they are asking for is really only enough to begin to catch up with inflation, after years of pay cuts once inflation is taken into account.

There is another way: the strikes are not happening in Scotland because the Scottish government listened to nurses and made a better pay offer.

We all owe healthcare workers a huge debt of gratitude and we need to pay them in a way that will make a real difference in their lives: a substantial pay rise. 

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Highlighted comments

I’m a nurse and work well over my contracted hours every week. I’m exhausted and struggling to make ends meet as a single mum.

Serena, Lincolnshire

Years of capped pay rises make it almost impossible for NHS workers to have a fair standard of living.

Bob, Oxford

Nurses are long overdue a pay rise, particularly given the hard conditions, long hours and extra stress throughout the Covid pandemic, where their dedication did not falter.

Deborah, Denbighshire

We have to value those who work for the good of society.

Christine, Bournemouth