Consultants’ and resident doctors’ real terms earnings fell more sharply than the average drop across the public sector between 2011 and 2025, a new analysis shows.The think tank the Nuffield Trust came to this conclusion after comparing real terms earnings of doctors and other healthcare groups with the public and private sectors.1In the 14 years to March 2025—the last complete financial year for which data are available—real terms average earnings of resident doctors fell 8.6% and that of consultants 10%.This compared with an average decrease of 6.9% across the public sector.Earnings in other healthcare groups also saw greater falls than the public sector average, including ambulance staff (down 8.1%), nurses (10.7%) and midwives (13.5%).However, the authors noted that the pay gap for resident doctors is narrowing after salary improvements in recent years. In real terms, resident doctors are now only 8.6% behind the 2011 level, as of 2024-25, compared with…