A registered nurse in Australia earns a median of A$113,984 a year working full time, against £43,078 for a nurse in the UK. At today’s exchange rate that is about 39% more before tax and 33% more after it, which is why roughly a quarter of the overseas-trained nurses working in Australia trained in Britain. But the median only tells part of the story. The more useful question for a nurse thinking about the move is a narrower one: I’m on Band 6 now, so what would I be paid there? This guide answers it with the official pay scales on both sides.
Nurse salary UK vs Australia: the official numbers
Both figures come from the countries’ official earnings surveys, collected within weeks of each other in spring 2025. In Australia, the Bureau of Statistics puts the full-time median for registered nurses at A$2,192 a week (May 2025), or about A$113,984 a year across roughly 366,000 nurses. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics puts the full-time median for nursing professionals at £43,078 (April 2025).
Converted at A$1.90 to the pound, the Australian median is worth about £59,990, a gap of 39%. After income tax, the Medicare levy and National Insurance, a nurse on the Australian median keeps about £45,780 a year, against £34,536 in the UK: still a third more. Australian nurses do work slightly longer weeks on average (41 hours against 37.5 paid hours in the UK), but the gap survives on an hourly basis too, at about £30 an hour against £22.77, or 32% more.
NHS bands vs Australian pay scales
Medians mix new graduates with nurses near retirement, so the fairer comparison is grade for grade. Australia has no single national scale for public-hospital nurses: each state negotiates its own. The table below uses New South Wales, the largest public health system in the country, and sets each NSW Health grade beside the closest NHS band.
| Level | NHS England, 2026/27 | NSW Health, from July 2026 | NSW in £ | Gap at top of scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff nurse | Band 5: £32,073–£39,043 | Registered Nurse, years 1–8: A$81,468–A$114,379 | £42,878–£60,199 | +54% before tax (+45% after) |
| Senior / specialist nurse | Band 6: £39,959–£48,117 | Clinical Nurse Specialist, grades 1–2: A$119,028–A$132,070 | £62,646–£69,509 | +44% before tax (+37% after) |
| Ward manager | Band 7: £49,387–£56,515 | Nursing Unit Manager, levels 1–3: A$143,504–A$154,346 | £75,528–£81,234 | +44% before tax (+37% after) |
Base rates only, before shift and weekend penalties on both sides. NHS: Agenda for Change pay scales for England, 2026/27. NSW: weekly rates from 1 July 2026 in NSW Health Information Bulletin IB2026_018 (May 2026), multiplied by 52. Converted at A$1.90 to £1 (ECB, 5 October 2026). Grade matches are approximate: responsibilities differ between systems and between hospitals.
Two patterns stand out. First, every grade pays more in NSW, by 44% to 54% before tax at the top of each scale. Second, experience is rewarded far more steeply in Australia. A newly qualified nurse in NSW starts on A$81,468, about 34% more than the bottom of Band 5, but after eight annual steps the same nurse reaches A$114,379, a 40% rise within the grade. Band 5 only rises by 22% from bottom to top. The longer a nurse stays at the bedside, the wider the gap becomes.
The other states differ in the detail but not the direction. Victoria and Queensland run their own public-sector agreements with similar year-by-year steps, while private hospitals and aged care pay under the federal Nurses Award, whose minimum rates are lower (a level 1 registered nurse starts on A$1,219.50 a week from July 2026) and are usually topped up by enterprise agreements.
What you would actually take home
Pay scales are quoted before tax, and the two tax systems treat a nursing salary quite differently. Take a nurse at the top of Band 5 on £39,043. In England, after income tax and National Insurance, they keep about £31,630 a year, or £2,636 a month. At the top of the NSW registered nurse scale, on A$114,379, the same nurse would keep about A$87,260 after income tax and the Medicare levy: roughly £45,930 a year, or £3,827 a month. That is about £1,190 a month more, or 45%.
Further up, the gap after tax settles at around 37%: a Band 6 nurse at the top of the scale keeps about £3,180 a month, against £4,355 for a clinical nurse specialist at the top of grade 2 in NSW; a Band 7 manager keeps about £3,611, against £4,960 for a nursing unit manager at level 3. To try your own figures, choose “Registered nurse” in the calculator below and enter your current salary:
UK vs Australia Pay Calculator
Pick your job and enter your UK salary to see what the same role pays in Australia, before and after tax, on official earnings data.
| UK | Australia |
|---|
How it works: we place you at the same point relative to typical pay for your job. If you earn 10% above the UK median for your occupation, we compare you with someone earning 10% above the Australian median. Medians are for full-time employees: Australia from the ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours (May 2025), the UK from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (2025). Tax uses 2026–27 rules for a single employee with no other income (UK figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland). Australian pay is converted at A$1.90 to £1 (ECB, 5 October 2026). Superannuation is paid by the employer on top of salary. Not included: student loans, pension contributions, the Medicare Levy Surcharge, state or regional pay differences and visa costs.
Beyond base pay: super, penalties and hours
Three things change the comparison in Australia’s favour beyond the headline scale. Superannuation is paid by the employer on top of salary, at a minimum of 12% of ordinary earnings, against a legal minimum employer pension contribution of 3% of qualifying earnings in the UK (though the NHS Pension Scheme is considerably more generous than that minimum). Penalty rates for nights, weekends and public holidays are written into every Australian nursing agreement and add a large share of income for nurses on rotating shifts, which is one reason the median sits close to the top of the NSW base scale. And ordinary hours are similar on paper, at 38 a week in NSW against 37.5 under Agenda for Change.
What the comparison leaves out
Two costs sit outside any pay table. The first is living costs: on the OECD’s purchasing-power figures for nurses’ pay, prices in Australia work out about 8% higher relative to the UK than the exchange rate implies, which trims the after-tax gap for a typical nurse from 33% to around 23%. Rent in Sydney can take much more than that; regional New South Wales far less. The second is the cost of getting there: registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, visa fees and several months of moving costs, which for many nurses decide whether the first year actually comes out ahead.
None of this reverses the picture. On official figures, a UK nurse who makes the move typically earns a third more after tax, and the gap grows with experience. For the same comparison across 24 occupations, see our guide to UK vs Australia salaries.
Frequently asked questions
Do nurses earn more in Australia than in the UK?
Yes. The full-time median for registered nurses is A$113,984 in Australia against £43,078 in the UK, about 39% more before tax and 33% more after tax at A$1.90 to the pound (ABS, May 2025; ONS, 2025).
What is the Australian equivalent of NHS Band 5?
The closest match is the registered nurse grade in each state’s public health system. In New South Wales it runs from A$81,468 a year for a new graduate to A$114,379 after eight years (from 1 July 2026), compared with £32,073 to £39,043 for Band 5 in 2026/27.
How much does a Band 6 nurse earn in Australia?
A Band 6 role usually matches a clinical nurse specialist in Australia. In NSW, clinical nurse specialists earn A$119,028 to A$132,070 a year (from 1 July 2026), about £62,600 to £69,500, against £39,959 to £48,117 for Band 6.
Is nursing pay in Australia worth the higher cost of living?
For most nurses, yes. Adjusting for Australia’s higher prices using OECD figures still leaves a typical nurse about 23% better off after tax, before counting the 12% superannuation employers pay on top.
For how nurse pay compares across the developed world, see which country pays nurses the most, or our US vs UK nurse salary comparison. The underlying data come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Office for National Statistics, NHS Employers and NSW Health.