Something that puzzles a little bit:
Yet salaries of nurses in Northern Ireland have been allowed to fall far behind those of colleagues in the rest of the UK. A newly qualified band 5 staff nurse there, for example, is now paid £1,419 less than their counterpart in England and Wales, and £1,875 less than in Scotland, each year.
That’s about 5%. And NI wages are, generally, about 10% lower than whole UK average.
Further, NI nurses get their training fees paid for them and still receive bursaries.
That is, there are two good reasons why NI nurse salaries should be lower than mainland. In fact, taking both together, NI nurse salaries are currently too high.
So, why the whining?
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I'm a bit wary of using the national average. That presumably includes London, where wages are a fair bit higher than NI and everywhere else? Is there not some regional average we could use to see what's going on?
And isn't NornIrn cost of living lower? I'd love to get paid London Weighting and live in Sheffield.
My understanding is they're complaining that, because there has been no Stormont government for several years, they haven't had pay rises that have applied across the rUK.
Because they work in the public sector and expect to be paid on a national pay rate that is high enough to create supply equal to demand in London and provide a comfortable lifestyle anywhere else. Their basic salary is slightly less than average NI earnings and think they should get more than the average because nurses in England get paid more than the average full-time worker.
the flaw in this argument is that nurses pay is a lot more than the basic salary and they are, in fact, paid significantly more than the average full-time worker in Northern Ireland
Shop Stewarding 101. When all legitimate grievances have been fixed, transition to obtaining inequitable privileges for your members, otherwise you're out of a job.