I'm about to become a student nurse at university and the answer to your question is- it depends!
Newly graduated nurses (all nurses now have to have a degree to be registered with the NMC) start on a salary of roughly £22,000 but this rapidly increases with even a few months of experience. They are paid on what's called "The NHS agenda for pay" scale which works on a banding system. You start in band 5 but you quickly move up. Nurses with a few years experience will be earning just over £30,000 per annum before taxes.
This is actually by some standards an above average salary and don't forget your partners salary too- i'd say doable for a mortgage and a decent holiday every year especially if you have 2 earners. Don't forget however that most nurses have children and a family to look after which can get expensive!
Now for the interesting bit. Nursing is now a degree only profession and so in my opinion their pay should go up for that reason and the literally sh***y jobs we have to do. In the past decade we have seen lots of new nursing roles like "consultant nurse" and "director of nursing" come into play and these have much higher salaries of up to £50,000 dependent on experience and location.
There are also roles like the advanced nurse practitioner (you must have a masters degree in advanced nursing practice to do this) where nurses can become autonomous/ prescribe and complete many of the same jobs as say a GP would including diagnosing treating and referring patients to hospital. These are some of the highest paid jobs in nursing outside management and research and an experienced nurse practitioner can earn just over £50,000 in some areas.
Chief nurses are in band 8d and earn at least £66,582 per annum but obviously these are competitive and rare roles.
Midwives often out-earn normal nurses but nurses in senior roles actually get paid quite a bit more.
To see more of the roles that nurses can fulfill and their associated earnings chck out this site:
https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/about/careers-nhs/nhs-pay-and-benefits/agenda-change-pay-ratesI hope this helps explain that nursing isn't just a "one-trick-pony" profession like it was 2 or 3 decades ago, and that some nurses who specialise earn very very competitive salaries. Also that nurses are becoming much more highly trained and havemore knowledge of anatomy physiology and pharmacology than they ever have
In short don't underestimate nurses and their earning potential!