NHS Pay in Scotland vs England (2026/27): Every Band After Tax

This guide compares the two. For Scotland's own pay points, award and rules, see the NHS Scotland pay page.

Take home, band by band

Full time, with the NHS pension, paying the income tax for where you work. The first column is starting pay, England then Scotland.

Why the gap narrows higher up

Three things work against Scottish staff as pay rises:

• –Income tax. Scotland's 42% higher rate starts lower than England's 40% rate, and there's a 21% intermediate rate. At the bottom of Band 7, Scottish income tax is £654 a month against £533 in England, on higher pay.
• –Pension. SPPA's rates are higher than England's at the starting point of most bands: 11.6% at the bottom of 8a in Scotland against 10.7% in England.
• –Fewer pay points at the top. Bands 8a to 9 have two pay points in Scotland and three in England, so England's top point is further from its starting pay.

Hours and hourly rates

The full-time week is 36 hours in Scotland and 37.5 in England, for the same annual salary. That makes the hourly gap bigger than the annual one: Band 5 starts at £18.40 an hour in Scotland and £16.40 in England. If you do overtime or bank shifts, the hourly rate is the number that matters.

Unsocial hours and London

Scotland has higher unsocial hours rates for Bands 2 and 3 (Band 2: 44% and 88% in Scotland, 41% and 83% in England); from Band 4 up the rates are the same. Scotland has no High Cost Area Supplement. In and around London, English staff get 5% to 20% on top of basic pay, within cash limits, which can outweigh Scotland's higher pay.

Living on one side of the border, working on the other

Income tax follows where you live, not where you work. If NHS Scotland employs you and you live in England, you get Scottish pay and pay rest-of-UK tax: at the bottom of Band 7 that's £3,107 a month, £75 more than a colleague living in Scotland, and at the bottom of 8a £142 more. It works the other way too: live in Scotland and work for an English trust, and you pay Scottish tax on England's lower pay. The take home calculator has an "I live in Scotland" option for this.

The pay rise

Scotland's 2026/27 award is 3.75% against 3.3% in England, the second year of Scotland's own two-year deal for 2025 to 2027, which guarantees a rise of at least one percentage point above inflation each year.

Moving between the two

Your band doesn't automatically carry across: you apply for a post, and it's banded by its own job evaluation. Your student loan plan stays the same whichever country you work in, and you'd move between the two NHS pension schemes, which are run separately.