NHS Band 6 Pay in Northern Ireland 2026/27

Last updated: 8 November 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2025/26 pay scales, the NHS Pay Review Body 39th Report and the Department of Health (NI) statement of 14 October 2026.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

Northern Ireland is the one part of the UK where the 2026/27 NHS pay story has not moved. In England and Wales the 3.3% award landed in April salaries, on time. In Scotland a two-year deal delivered 3.75% and a shorter week. In Northern Ireland the same 3.3% was recommended, the Health Minister said he wanted to pay it, and nothing has happened since, because the Northern Ireland Executive has not agreed the funding. Health and Social Care staff are still being paid on last year's scale, and the Royal College of Nursing is balloting its members on strike action over the delay. This page gives the Band 6 figures as they actually stand: the scale in payment, the hourly and monthly rates, the take-home pay after the Northern Ireland pension rates, the unsocial-hours and overtime rates, and exactly what the missing 3.3% is worth at each pay point. Every figure that is in payment comes from the verified 2025/26 scale, and every figure for the award is labelled illustrative, because presenting it as live pay would be wrong.

What Band 6 pay is in Northern Ireland right now

Band 6 is the first specialist and supervisory grade in Agenda for Change, and in Northern Ireland it is paid on the 2025/26 scale. The band has three pay points, and staff move between them on the usual incremental progression, subject to appraisal. The table below gives the annual salary, the hourly rate on a 37.5-hour week, and the monthly and weekly equivalents for each point. The hourly rate is the annual salary divided by 52.2 weeks and then by 37.5 hours, which is the convention used across this site.

Two things about that table are worth saying plainly. First, the figures are a year behind the rest of the UK, and the gap is not small. A Band 6 specialist nurse at the top of the band in Northern Ireland earns £46,580 a year; the same job in England earns £48,117, a difference of £1,537 a year, or £128.08 a month. At entry the gap is £1,277 a year, or £106.42 a month. Second, the scale is not a guess. Northern Ireland matched England's scale in 2025/26, when the award was 3.6%, so the 2025/26 England figures are the confirmed Northern Ireland figures. That is the position the Northern Ireland pay guide sets out for every band, and it is the position this page works from throughout.

The weekly column is the figure that matters most for anyone checking a payslip, because HSC Trusts pay monthly but most people think in weeks. A Band 6 worker at entry takes £741.03 a week before deductions, £782.05 at the intermediate step and £892.34 at the top. Those are gross figures, before pension, tax and National Insurance, and the take-home section below works out what is left after each deduction.

Why the 2026/27 rise has not arrived

The story of the missing rise has three dates. On 12 February 2026 the NHS Pay Review Body published its 39th Report and recommended a 3.3% consolidated uplift for Agenda for Change staff across the UK, including Northern Ireland. The recommendation would add an estimated £120 million to the Northern Ireland pay bill. The Health Minister said on the same day that he wished to proceed with the 3.3% from 1 April 2026. In England and Wales the recommendation was accepted and the award was paid on time in April salaries, the first on-time award since 2020. In Northern Ireland it was not paid, because the Northern Ireland Executive had not agreed a budget for the financial year, and implementing a pay award needs Executive approval for the funding.

The second date is 26 August 2026, when Nursing Times reported that HSC staff were still waiting for the award, nearly five months after it took effect elsewhere, because the ministerial direction needed to implement it was awaiting approval by the Executive. A ministerial direction is an unusual step: the former Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, issued one to authorise implementing the award in the absence of standard budget approvals. The direction still needs the Executive to agree to release the funding, and that agreement has not come.

The third date is 14 October 2026, when the Royal College of Nursing in Northern Ireland opened a statutory ballot for industrial action, including strike action, over pay. The same day, the Department of Health issued a statement in which the current Health Minister, Robbie Butler, said he understood the frustration felt by nurses and other HSC staff, that the 2026/27 award should be implemented and pay parity with colleagues in NHS England restored as soon as possible, and that he would do everything in his power to deliver it. The statement also formally committed to introducing the Real Living Wage across Health and Social Care, and noted that structural Agenda for Change pay reform discussions continue. The ballot papers go to Civica Election Services by Friday 20 November 2026, and the RCN is urging members to vote yes to both action short of strike and full strike action. The full timeline and what a yes vote would mean are on the RCN strike ballot page.

None of that changes what is on the payslip today. Until the Department of Health confirms implementation, the 2025/26 scale in the table above is the pay, and any figure that starts with £39,959 for Band 6 is a forecast, not a salary. That distinction is the reason this page separates the two sets of figures so firmly, and it is the reason the next section labels its figures illustrative in every row.

What the 3.3% would be worth

If the Executive approves the funding and the Department of Health implements the award, Band 6 in Northern Ireland would move onto the same figures England has paid since April: £39,959 at entry, £42,170 at the intermediate step and £48,117 at the top. The table below puts the two scales side by side, with the rise at each point and the arrears that would have built up by the end of October 2026, seven months into the pay year, if the award is backdated to 1 April 2026.

The arrears column is the one that turns an abstract percentage into money owed. By the end of October, seven months of the pay year have passed without the award. A Band 6 worker at the top of the band is owed £896.58 for those seven months if the award is backdated to 1 April, £785.75 at the intermediate step and £744.92 at entry. Each further month of delay adds another £128.08, £112.25 or £106.42 to the amount owed. That is the cost of the delay in the most concrete sense, and it is also why the unions are pressing for backdating: standard Agenda for Change practice is for an award to be backdated to 1 April, and the ministerial direction is understood to intend the same, but no backdating date is legally confirmed until the Executive approves the funding, so treat the arrears figures as the amount that would be owed, not a promise.

One caution applies to the illustrative column. It assumes Northern Ireland restores parity with England, which is what has happened with every previous award, and what the Health Minister has said he intends. It is not a published Northern Ireland scale, because no Northern Ireland pay circular for 2026/27 exists. If the eventual implementation differs, for example by applying the Real Living Wage floor at the bottom of the scale as Wales did, the lower bands would change, but Band 6 sits well above any living-wage floor, so the illustrative Band 6 figures are the best available estimate of what the award would pay. The pay scales by country comparison sets out the same position for every band and nation.

Take-home pay after pension, tax and National Insurance

Gross pay is not what arrives in the bank. The table below works out take-home pay for each Band 6 point in Northern Ireland, on the rates actually in payment, using the same method used across this site: the HSC pension contribution comes off first, income tax is charged on what is left after the personal allowance, and National Insurance comes off gross pay. Student loan repayments are not in the table, and are dealt with separately below.

Read the table across one row and the shape of a Band 6 payslip is clear. At entry, on £38,682 a year, the pension takes £3,868.20, income tax takes £4,448.76 and National Insurance takes £2,088.96, leaving £28,276.08 a year, or £2,356.34 a month. At the top, on £46,580, the pension takes £4,658.00, tax takes £5,870.40 and National Insurance takes £2,720.80, leaving £33,330.80 a year, or £2,777.57 a month. The pension is the largest single deduction at every point, which is why the pension section below matters: it is also the deduction that buys the most, because it accrues pension at the 1/54th rate while cutting the tax bill.

The chart above the table plots monthly take-home by pay point. The step from entry to intermediate is worth £114.19 a month in take-home, and the step from intermediate to top is worth £307.04 a month, because the top step is a much larger jump in gross pay. That larger top step is the shape of the Agenda for Change spine since the 2018 restructuring, which collapsed many small annual increments into fewer, larger steps.

Student loans come off after the figures in the table. Most staff who studied in England or Wales are on Plan 2, which takes 9% of earnings above £29,385 a year. On Band 6 pay in Northern Ireland that is £836.73 a year, or £69.73 a month, at entry, £1,029.42 a year, or £85.79 a month, at the intermediate step, and £1,547.55 a year, or £128.96 a month, at the top. Take-home with a Plan 2 loan is therefore £2,286.61 a month at entry, £2,384.74 at the intermediate step and £2,648.60 at the top. Staff who studied in Scotland are usually on Plan 4, with a higher threshold of £33,795, so the deduction is smaller. The student loan repayments on NHS pay guide and the student loan calculator work out the deduction for any salary and plan.

Unsocial hours and overtime

Band 6 staff in Northern Ireland work the same unsocial-hours rules as their counterparts in England, because Agenda for Change Section 2 is a UK-wide framework. Band 6 sits in the bands 4 to 9 group, so Saturday and weekday night work, between 8pm and 6am, is paid at the hourly rate plus 30%, and Sunday and public holiday work at the hourly rate plus 60%. The rates below are worked out from the rounded hourly rates actually in payment, so they are the rates a Band 6 worker in Northern Ireland is paid today, not the illustrative rates.

A worked example shows what the enhancements are worth on a real rota. A Band 6 nurse at the top of the band who works a 12-hour Sunday shift is paid 12 hours at £38.08, which is £456.96 for the shift, against £285.60 at the plain rate, a difference of £171.36 for that one shift. A Saturday night shift of the same length at £30.94 is £371.28, a difference of £85.68 over plain time. Those enhancements are pensionable and taxable in the same way as basic pay, so they raise the pension contribution and the tax bill as well as the gross pay, and a Band 6 worker on a full unsocial-hours rota can cross into higher-rate tax on total pay even though the basic salary does not. The unsocial hours and overtime guide works through the rules in full, including the rule that overtime and unsocial-hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hours.

Overtime is paid at time-and-a-half for hours above 37.5 a week, and double time on bank holidays, for Bands 1 to 7. A Band 6 worker at entry earns £29.64 an hour for overtime and £39.52 on a bank holiday; at the top the figures are £35.70 and £47.60. Part-time staff are paid at plain time for hours above their contracted hours up to 37.5, with overtime rates only above that. Staff may elect time off in lieu instead of pay. The overtime calculator works out shift pay for any combination of hours.

The HSC pension on Band 6 pay

Northern Ireland runs its own pension contribution tiers through the HSC Pension Service, and they are not the same as the England and Wales tiers. The thresholds are the same in both years, but the rates are higher in Northern Ireland in the second and fourth tiers: 6.7% where England charges 6.5%, and 10.0% where England charges 9.8%. The full 2026/27 HSC structure is 5.2% up to £13,259, 6.7% to £28,854, 8.5% to £35,155, 10.0% to £52,778, 10.9% to £67,668 and 12.7% above that. All three Band 6 pay points sit inside the 10.0% tier, which covers salaries from £35,156 to £52,778, so the contribution is a flat 10.0% of pensionable pay at every Band 6 step.

That flat rate makes the pension maths simple. At entry the contribution is £3,868.20 a year, or £322.35 a month. At the intermediate step it is £4,082.30 a year, or £340.19 a month. At the top it is £4,658.00 a year, or £388.17 a month. The employer adds 23.2% on top, which is £8,974.22 a year at entry, £9,470.94 at the intermediate step and £10,806.56 at the top. The England employer rate is 23.7%, so the Northern Ireland employer puts in slightly less, while the Northern Ireland member puts in slightly more. The pension contributions by band guide sets out the England and Wales tiers for comparison, and the pension contributions guide covers the scheme in full.

Each year of service accrues pension at 1/54th of pensionable earnings in the 2015 CARE scheme, so a year at Band 6 entry accrues £716.33 of annual pension, a year at the intermediate step accrues £755.98, and a year at the top accrues £862.59. The built-up pension is revalued each April. The contribution also cuts the tax bill, because it comes off before tax: at entry the pension contribution saves £773.64 of income tax a year, which is the 20% rate applied to the £3,868.20 contribution. That tax saving is part of the value of the scheme, and it is the reason the take-home figures on this page are worked out with the pension taken off first.

Part-time Band 6 pay

Part-time pay is the full-time salary multiplied by the whole-time-equivalent fraction, and the pension tier is set by the full-time salary, not the part-time amount. A Band 6 worker at entry on 0.6 whole-time equivalent, which is 22.5 hours a week on the 37.5-hour week, earns £23,209.20 a year, or £1,934.10 a month. The pension tier is 10.0%, set by the full-time salary of £38,682, and it takes £2,320.92 a year, or £193.41 a month. Income tax is £1,663.66 a year and National Insurance is £851.14, leaving take-home of £18,373.48 a year, or £1,531.12 a month.

The same pro-rata rule applies to leave and to unsocial-hours enhancements, which are paid on the hours actually worked. One detail catches people out: the pension tier follows the whole-time salary, so a part-time worker whose full-time equivalent sits in a higher tier pays that tier's rate on the part-time pay, and the tier does not drop because the take-home is lower. The part-time pay guide covers the pro-rata rules in full, including how leave is worked out for part-time staff.

What Band 6 jobs look like in Northern Ireland

Band 6 is the grade where NHS careers turn specialist. In Northern Ireland, as across the UK, the band covers specialist nurses, senior staff nurses, health visitors who hold the Specialist Community Public Health Nursing qualification, senior physiotherapists, senior midwives, specialist paramedics and team leaders. The common thread is not the job title but the level of practice: autonomous clinical work, responsibility for a caseload or a team, and the judgement to work without direct supervision. A newly qualified nurse starts at Band 5 and typically reaches Band 6 after two to three years of post-registration experience, often with a specialist qualification or a move into a team-leader post. The Band 6 salary guide sets out the roles and the progression route in detail, and the health visitor salary guide covers the Band 6 to Band 7 health visiting route specifically.

The step from Band 5 to Band 6 is the largest single jump in the lower half of the Agenda for Change scale. On the rates actually in payment in Northern Ireland, Band 5 top is £37,796 and Band 6 entry is £38,682, a difference of £886 a year, but the real comparison is entry to entry: Band 5 entry is £31,049 in Northern Ireland and Band 6 entry is £38,682, a difference of £7,633 a year, or £636.08 a month. That is the reward for the specialist qualification and the extra responsibility, and it is the reason Band 6 is the grade most nurses aim for in the first five years of their career. The Band 5 salary guide gives the starting point for the comparison.

Northern Ireland against the rest of the UK

The table below puts Northern Ireland Band 6 beside England, on the same pay points, with the take-home figures from the same method. England is the right comparison because Northern Ireland has historically restored parity with England whenever an award is implemented, and the illustrative figures for Northern Ireland are the England figures.

England is ahead by £73.44 a month at entry, £77.46 at the intermediate step and £88.39 at the top. The gap is wider than the gross difference alone would suggest, because the Northern Ireland pension rate is slightly higher: 10.0% against 9.8% in England. Scotland is a different comparison again. Scotland pays its own scale, with Band 6 at £43,231 to £52,679, and works a 36-hour week, so the Scottish hourly rate is £23.03 at entry and £28.06 at the top, against £19.76 and £23.80 in Northern Ireland. Scotland also sets its own income tax bands, so a straight take-home comparison needs the Scottish tax figures as well. The Scotland pay guide and the pay scales by country comparison set out the four-nation picture in full, and the Wales pay guide covers the Welsh scale, which applied the same 3.3% as England and added a Real Living Wage floor at the bottom.

One thing Northern Ireland does not have is London weighting. The High Cost Area Supplement is a London supplement, at 20% of basic pay in inner London, 15% in outer London and 5% in the fringe zone, each with a minimum and a maximum. It does not apply in Northern Ireland, and no equivalent supplement exists for Belfast or anywhere else in the region. The London weighting guide works through the caps band by band for staff who do work in London.

What to do while you wait

The practical advice for a Band 6 worker in Northern Ireland is short. First, check your payslip against the figures on this page. Your basic pay should be £38,682, £40,823 or £46,580, depending on your pay point, and your pension deduction should be 10.0% of pensionable pay. If either figure is different, the first place to look is your pay point and your pension tier, because those two lines explain almost every difference between a published figure and the money that arrives. Second, do not budget on the 3.3%. Until the Department of Health confirms implementation, the illustrative figures are not income, and a household budget built on them will be short by £106.42 to £128.08 a month. Third, follow the ballot. The RCN ballot closes on Friday 20 November 2026, and the result will shape what happens next, whether that is industrial action, a renewed push for Executive approval, or both. Your trade union and your HSC Trust payroll team are the sources for the latest position, and this page will be updated when the Department of Health makes an announcement.

The delay is not a small administrative slip. By the end of October, a Band 6 worker at the top of the band is owed £896.58 in arrears, and the figure grows by £128.08 every month the award stays unpaid. That is money for rent, bills and childcare, and it is owed to tens of thousands of HSC staff across every band. The gap will close when the Executive agrees the funding, and until then the figures on this page are the ones to plan around. For the wider Northern Ireland picture, including every band and the latest award status, see the Northern Ireland pay guide, and for the dispute behind the delay, see the RCN strike ballot page.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a Band 6 nurse earn in Northern Ireland?

A Band 6 nurse in Northern Ireland earns £38,682 a year at entry, £40,823 at the intermediate step and £46,580 at the top of the band. That is £19.76, £20.85 and £23.80 an hour on a 37.5-hour week, or £3,223.50, £3,401.92 and £3,881.67 a month. Those are the 2025/26 Agenda for Change rates, which are still the rates in payment because the 2026/27 award of 3.3% has not been implemented in Northern Ireland. The equivalent England figures for 2026/27 are £39,959, £42,170 and £48,117.

Has Northern Ireland had the 2026/27 NHS pay rise?

No. The NHS Pay Review Body recommended a 3.3% consolidated uplift for Agenda for Change staff across the UK on 12 February 2026, and England and Wales paid it in April 2026 salaries. In Northern Ireland the recommendation has not been implemented: no Department of Health pay circular for 2026/27 has been published, and HSC staff remain on the 2025/26 scale. The Health Minister has said the award should be implemented as soon as possible, and a ministerial direction to implement it is awaiting approval by the Northern Ireland Executive. The Royal College of Nursing opened a ballot for industrial action on 14 October 2026, which closes on 20 November 2026.

What would Band 6 pay be in Northern Ireland if the 3.3% is implemented?

Band 6 would rise to £39,959 at entry, £42,170 at the intermediate step and £48,117 at the top, matching the confirmed England 2026/27 scale. That is a rise of £1,277, £1,347 and £1,537 a year, or £106.42, £112.25 and £128.08 a month. Those figures are illustrative, not live pay: do not budget on them until the Department of Health confirms implementation. If the award lands, standard Agenda for Change practice is for it to be backdated to 1 April 2026, but no backdating date is legally confirmed until the Executive approves the funding.

What is Band 6 take-home pay in Northern Ireland?

After the HSC pension contribution, income tax and National Insurance, a full-time Band 6 worker in Northern Ireland takes home £2,356.34 a month at entry, £2,470.53 at the intermediate step and £2,777.57 at the top of the band. With a Plan 2 student loan, those figures fall to £2,286.61, £2,384.74 and £2,648.60 a month. The same roles in England take home £2,429.78, £2,547.99 and £2,865.96 a month, so Northern Ireland keeps £73.44, £77.46 and £88.39 less per month. The gap comes from the lower gross pay and from the slightly higher Northern Ireland pension rate.

How much pension do Band 6 staff in Northern Ireland pay?

Band 6 staff in Northern Ireland pay 10.0% of pensionable pay at all three pay points: £3,868.20 a year (£322.35 a month) at entry, £4,082.30 a year (£340.19 a month) at the intermediate step and £4,658.00 a year (£388.17 a month) at the top. All three steps sit inside the same HSC pension tier, which covers salaries from £35,156 to £52,778. The employer adds 23.2% on top. Northern Ireland uses the same tier thresholds as England and Wales but higher rates in the second and fourth tiers, so a Band 6 worker in Northern Ireland pays 10.0% where the England equivalent pays 9.8%.

What are unsocial hours rates for Band 6 in Northern Ireland?

Band 6 is in the bands 4 to 9 group under Agenda for Change Section 2, so Saturday and weekday night work is paid at the hourly rate plus 30%, and Sunday and public holiday work at the hourly rate plus 60%. On the rates actually in payment, that gives £25.69 an hour for Saturday and night work and £31.62 for Sundays and bank holidays at entry, £27.11 and £33.36 at the intermediate step, and £30.94 and £38.08 at the top. Overtime above 37.5 hours a week is time-and-a-half, or double time on bank holidays: £29.64 and £39.52 an hour at entry, rising to £35.70 and £47.60 at the top.

Is Band 6 pay the same in Northern Ireland as in England?

Not right now. Northern Ireland is one pay award behind England: a Band 6 worker in Northern Ireland is paid £38,682 to £46,580 a year, while the same band in England is paid £39,959 to £48,117. The gap is £1,277 a year at entry, £1,347 at the intermediate step and £1,537 at the top, or £106.42, £112.25 and £128.08 a month. Historically Northern Ireland has restored parity with England whenever an award is implemented, and the Health Minister has said he intends to apply the same 3.3%, but until the Executive approves the funding, the England figures are only what the rise would be worth, not what anyone is paid.

When will Northern Ireland HSC staff get the pay rise?

There is no confirmed date. The Department of Health said on 14 October 2026 that the Health Minister would do everything in his power to deliver the award, and a ministerial direction to implement it is waiting for the Northern Ireland Executive to agree the funding. The Royal College of Nursing ballot on industrial action closes on Friday 20 November 2026, with the result expected shortly after. Watch announcements from the Department of Health, your HSC Trust payroll team and your trade union. Until implementation is confirmed, do not budget on the 3.3%, and check your payslip against the 2025/26 figures on this page.

Sources and independence

Source: NHS Pay Review Body, 39th Report 2026 (3.3% recommendation, 12 February 2026).

Source: Department of Health (Northern Ireland), statement on the RCN industrial action ballot, 14 October 2026.

Source: Royal College of Nursing Northern Ireland, industrial action ballot announcement, 14 October 2026.

Source: NHS Employers, Pay scales for 2025/26 (Northern Ireland matched England in 2025/26).

Source: NHS Employers, NHS PRB pay award announcement 2026 (England 2026/27 circular figures, illustrative for Northern Ireland).

Source: HSC Pension Service for Northern Ireland pension contribution tiers 2026/27 (same thresholds as England and Wales, rates 5.2% to 12.7%, employer 23.2%).

Source: GOV.UK for income tax bands, National Insurance and student loan thresholds; NHS Employers unsocial hours factsheet for Section 2 rates.

NHS Bands Pay is an independent guide and is not affiliated with the NHS, the Department of Health (Northern Ireland) or the HSC Pension Service. Figures were verified against the official sources above on 8 November 2026 and can change, always confirm with the relevant official body before making financial decisions. The 2026/27 figures for Northern Ireland are illustrative until the Department of Health confirms implementation.