NHS Wales pay bands

NHS Wales pay in 2026/27 runs from £26,300 at bands 1 and 2 to £131,732 at the top of band 9. Wales uses the same Agenda for Change bands as England, but its pay points are higher. A Welsh band 5 nurse starts on £32,557, against £32,073 in England. The Welsh Government’s pay letter AfC(W) 02/2026, dated 12 February 2026, applied 3.3 per cent to the 2025/26 scales from 1 April 2026.

2026/27 pay scales in Wales

The figures are annual, full-time and basic, from the Welsh Government’s circular, with England’s from NHS Employers for comparison.

Band	Wales	England
1 (closed) and 2	£26,300	£25,272
3	£26,813 to £27,890	£25,760 to £27,476
4	£28,819 to £31,626	£28,392 to £31,157
5	£32,557, £35,114, £39,631	£32,073, £34,592, £39,043
6	£40,559, £42,805, £48,841	£39,959, £42,170, £48,117
7	£50,129, £52,712, £57,365	£49,387, £51,932, £56,515
8a	£58,379, £61,317, £65,723	£57,528, £60,417, £64,750
8b	£67,583, £71,952, £78,530	£66,582, £70,896, £77,368
8c	£80,698, £85,611, £92,984	£79,504, £84,346, £91,609
8d	£95,773, £101,643, £110,448	£94,356, £100,140, £108,814
9	£114,475, £121,377, £131,732	£112,782, £119,583, £129,783

The circular gives the same step timings as England: band 3 has one step after two years, band 4 after three, band 5 steps after two years and again after two, and bands 6 to 9 after two years and again after three. Band 2 is a single rate.

Why the Welsh scale is higher

The circular explains part of it. The 3.3 per cent was applied to the 2025/26 Welsh scales, and it did not apply to the pay points covered by an earlier letter, AfC(W) 01/2026, because those points had already been raised to the Living Wage Foundation rate as an advance payment. Bands 1 and 2 both sit at £26,300, which on a 37.5-hour week is about £13.45 an hour, against about £12.92 in England.

From band 3’s top point upwards, Wales is about 1.5 per cent above England. At the bottom of the scale the gap is wider: £1,028 at band 2 and £1,053 at the entry point of band 3.

The band 3 correction

The first version of the scale showed band 3 entry at £26,300, the same as bands 1 and 2. A second letter on 1 June 2026 corrected this. It raised the band 3 entry point by 1.95 per cent to £26,813 to restore the gap between the top of band 2 and the start of band 3. If your pay slip in the first months of 2026/27 showed £26,300, ask your payroll team whether the correction has been applied to you.

Allowances in Wales

The circular raised the sleeping-in and on-call allowances by 3.3 per cent. From 1 April 2026 sleeping in is £44.82, Wales on call is £26.05 on a weekday or weekend, and £52.08 on a public holiday. All other allowances in the NHS terms and conditions handbook stayed the same. The circular adds that bank workers are paid on the Welsh pay scales, with the Living Wage Foundation rate as the minimum, so the increase applies to them automatically.

Tax, pension and Welsh language

Welsh residents pay Welsh income tax. For 2026 to 2027 the rates are 20 per cent on income from £12,571 to £50,270, 40 per cent to £125,140 and 45 per cent above, so for NHS pay the result matches England. Tax codes carry a C prefix, covered in Welsh C tax codes. The NHS Pension Scheme for England and Wales applies, so the contribution tiers match England’s, but contributions are based on your pay, so a higher Welsh salary can place you in a higher tier sooner.

Many Welsh NHS jobs list Welsh language skills as essential or desirable, which is explained in Welsh language skills in public sector jobs. Health services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compares the four systems, and public sector jobs in Wales covers the main employers. For take-home figures use the take-home pay calculator.

If an advert or payslip shows a different figure from the table, check it against the two Welsh Government letters in the sources above.