Junior doctor pay

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Original post by DoctorInTraining

I have to disagree with some of the earlier posts. I am currently a F1 with a mixed banded job (some months unbanded, some months band A) and I am struggling to save anything.

Last month my net salary was £1514 then minus rent, transport, bills and groceries I only had 300 left to cover all my other expenses.... which was a massive struggle and some expenses went begrudgingly onto my mastercard.
No holidays, no car, no fancy nights out. Budget for all groceries so no wasted food.

Have been trying to save up for my mrcs part a in April but so far only have 100 (exam is 500).

Genuinely struggling to cover costs. Have had to turn down a conference in feb as I cant afford it :*(

How much is your rent and bills?

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Reply 21

A5ko

I know it doesn't exactly address the OP's post but:

If you're going into medicine for the money, you should reconsider.

Yes, at a Consultant level the pay is great, but it's not a job, it's a life.

Reply 22

DoctorInTraining

Original post by carcinoma

How much is your rent and bills?

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Rent 670 pcm, bills approx 140 (varies esp water bill!) and then travel and food

Reply 23

hoonosewot

Original post by DoctorInTraining

Rent 670 pcm, bills approx 140 (varies esp water bill!) and then travel and food

I suspect the reason behind this is that:
A. You're travelling quite a lot if you spend £400 a month on it and groceries?
B. You live alone? £670pcm is quite a lot to take from one paycheck. My rents 750 but split between 2. Same with groceries. Makes a huge difference.

Reply 24

nexttime

Original post by DoctorInTraining

Rent 670 pcm, bills approx 140 (varies esp water bill!) and then travel and food

I'm going to break down the difference between you and me:

Firstly, that's a low wage. Its only very slightly above what I would expect a totally unbanded job to pay (£1390 after income tax, NI and pension - and student loans haven't started deducting yet have they?), which is not what you describe. I make that around 10% banding? Something weird going on?

I would consider a more 'normal' income to be say £30,000 (34% banding average) which would give you £1780 post tax and pension. I get very similar. -£270

My rent is £362pcm in the most expensive city outside of London. Mine is admittedly the cheapest I found and I share with 3 others, but yours is almost double. Living alone? Living in London without getting London pay? £-308

I pay circa £60pcm bills. Again - living alone I take it? -£80

You spend £400 on food and transport. I probably do spend that, but only because i have to commute 30 miles on the trains (season ticket was £2200 for 1 year). You have a long commute in addition to all the other expenses? ~£0

£300 per month on 'other' that is not including conferences and exams - seems like a lot to me? I do pay for a bunch of other stuff but if I separate 'necessary' from not I probably spend less than £100 on other stuff in any given month? Don't really keep strict track tbh :tongue:

I'll say %150 just to be safe. -£150

Total: -£808.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 25

Differential

[video="youtube_share;4dPjONDN3ZI"]http://youtu.be/4dPjONDN3ZI[/video]

Reply 26

Irishinlondon

Original post by nexttime

You can easily Google what your take home pay will be on a given wage - 30000 is a reasonable estimate for gross pay until you know what banding you will be on.

Could someone clarify for me whether the above is an estimate for FY1 or FY2?

I am starting FY1 in August and will have London weighting. Is £1600 a fair estimate before any additional banding? I would really appreciate if any current London FY1s had any further info

Reply 27

Helenia

Original post by Irishinlondon

For FY1. If you are 1A banded the whole year, then your gross salary would be higher - ~£35000, possibly a little more, which translates to take-home of just over £2000 per month with London weighting. Obviously if you are only 1B, or if you have an unbanded rotation, it will be less.

£1600 per month post-tax is probably a bit high for a completely unbanded job, but it is extremely unlikely that you will be unbanded for the whole year.

Reply 28

nexttime

Original post by Irishinlondon

For FY1.

I may have misunderstood your tone but banding isn't really "additional" - virtually everyone will have at least two out of three jobs with at least 40% banding. Budgeting for a job without considering banding would just be silly. As I said, £30,000 (with london weighting on top of that) is a very reasonable average pre-tax pay to assume before you know your actual jobs.

Reply 29

Irishinlondon

Thank you both for your replies. Very helpful :smile:

Reply 30

Knugs

Original post by nexttime

How is 40% like?

Reply 31

junior.doctor

I'm not sure what you are asking - are you asking what sort of salary a 40% banding would give, or are you asking what lifestyle / budgeting is like on a 40% banding? If you're asking what budgeting is like, I had 40% banding for all of my FY1, and found this to be a very reasonable salary with plenty of room for luxuries and I was also able to save. I did share a flat in FY1 though, which brought down living costs. In FY2 I believe I had 2x50% banding and one unbanded job. Again, the average was very reasonable - I managed to afford to live alone in a 2 bedroom flat and still didn't have to scrimp and save.

Reply 32

nexttime

Original post by Knugs

How is 40% like?

As above - what is your question? As i've said in the earlier posts in the thread, i feel like i have loads of money.

Reply 33

Knugs

Original post by nexttime

As above - what is your question? As i've said in the earlier posts in the thread, i feel like i have loads of money.

As in the hours and lifestyle

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 34

nexttime

Original post by Knugs

As in the hours and lifestyle

I've had two very cushy jobs so far.

Job one was 50% banding but never got out more than an hour late (generalyl less than half an hour) with no night shifts. Just 4 weekends and you could choose which ones. Two in every 3 weeks you had one long (12 hour) day and leave was really bad - just 7 days which were scheduled for you on random midweek days (illegal in many ways but they didn't give a **** and we weren't going to complain as the job itself was great)..

Currently unbanded psych job with once weekly day release to be a student again on ITU/A&E/anaesthetics plus an additional half day teaching per week. On the 3.5 days I am in work, i generally leave early.

Others will have very different experiences.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 35

pancreas

So which ones are the banded depertments in london hospitals??

Reply 36

nexttime

Original post by pancreas

So which ones are the banded depertments in london hospitals??

Doesn't work like that. Banding is based on official out of hours commitments and is job and often year-specific.

The short answer though is: all of them apart from psychiatry and GP rotations. Very likely 20 out of your 24 months as a junior doctor will have at least 40%, unless you're doing an academic job in which case you might get additional unbanded time.

Reply 37

*Dreamer*

Hi everyone

its been great reading through everyones posts and getting an idea on salary. And I know that medicine isn't all about the money, however we are still human and have expenses to worry about, so I appreciate the feedback :smile:

I intercalated last year so I'm due to start working in the summer, when the new contract is in full swing. I've had quite a bit of a read over the new contract and I understand that a lot of it depends on what rotation you are on, on calls and nights etc. It would be good to know how you guys are finding it and if you are still taking home as much as you expected at the end of the month? How is everyone being affected and are your hours/shifts still manageable?

Thanks in advance :smile: