Consultant payslip guide

Consultant payslip guide Ensure your work is being properly recognised and paid. This tool will help you understand the different elements of your payslip.

Pay scale range

This section will set out the top and bottom of your national pay scale, as well as your current whole time equivalent (WTE) salary. This is the amount that you would get without any additional payments if you worked full time.

Incremental date

Your incremental date is usually the anniversary of the date you were first appointed as a consultant. Generally, most consultants will progress through seniority points each year on the anniversary of their start date.

Contracted hours

Your contracted hours are the number you have agreed in your job plan. A standard full-time contract will be for 40 hours a week.

Basic pay

‘Basic pay’ is the amount of salary paid to you before any extras are added or taken off. This is the part of your salary that is fixed every month until your next increment or pay uplift.

Additional/ Extra PAs

These are agreed additional/extra PAs over and above the 10 per week for full-time consultants, or in excess of the contracted PAs for part-time consultants. Their value is calculated based on basic pay plus any relevant awards (not all types of award provide for this uplift). In almost all cases, these extra PAs are non-pensionable. If they are undertaken out of hours, then those rates will apply.

Out-of-hours

You are paid for work undertaken out of hours at premium rates, which is time and a third (if the full 4 hours of a PA are worked).

OOH activity that is part of your contracted hours is superannuable and will be shown as ‘Out of hours Sup’ or similar. OOH activity that is over and above contracted hours is non-superannuable and will be shown as ‘Out of hours N/Sup’ or similar.

Availability supplement

An additional on-call availability supplement is paid for undertaking an on-call rota. The level of the supplement you will receive depends on frequency (low, medium or high) and intensity (two categories depending on response and attendance). These frequencies and categories are set out in your relevant terms and conditions. The supplement is calculated as a percentage of the basic salary and is pensionable.

Awards

Some types of award for clinical contribution or excellence may be consolidated into monthly pay, in which case it will usually appear separately in your payslip

Salary sacrifice

Salary sacrifice allows you to give up part of your salary in return for a non-cash benefit. This can be things like childcare vouchers, or increased pension contributions. You must make sure that you have agreed to your salary sacrifice deductions, and also that they remain valid and up to date with your own circumstances.

Additional responsibilities

Additional responsibilities are professional duties which you may carry out for or on behalf of the employer or another body, which are beyond the range of the supporting professional activities. As an example, additional responsibilities can include:

Medical management responsibilities
Caldicott guardians
clinical audit leads
clinical governance leads
undergraduate and postgraduate deans
clinical tutors

Additional Responsibilities may be included as one of your PAs in the standard contract in which case it will not appear separately in your payslip. However, it can sometimes be contracted and remunerated separately and may feature as a separate line in your payslip.

Deductions

Any deductions must be required or authorised by legislation (for example, income tax or national insurance deductions) or consented to in writing before it is made. If you think your pay is wrong, the best thing you can do in the first instance is talk to your employer to find out why. If you and your employer/payroll department can’t agree on how much you should have been paid, you should seek further advice from the BMA.

Tax/National insurance

It is crucial to ensure that your tax and National Insurance have been dealt with correctly. This is your responsibility as an employee. The cumulative numbers represent the total amount of tax and national insurance paid in the current tax year. You can check on GOV.UK to see your Personal Allowance and tax code, how much tax you’ve paid in the current tax year and how much you’re likely to pay for the rest of the year. You will also pay National Insurance with your tax. Your employer will take it from your wages before you get paid. Your payslip will show your contributions.

Superannuation/ pension

In general terms your payslip records your contributions as pre-tax deductions on your payslip. Since it is tax-free it will appear as a percentage of your gross pay, not your net pay. ‘Superannuation’ refers to your monthly superannuation contributions. ‘Super Paid’ refers to your total superannuation (pension) contributions in the current tax year.

It is important to remember that pension and taxation arrangements are a very complex area and are very specific to individuals. If you have any questions, you should seek advice from a BMA pensions adviser or independent financial advice.

Find contract advice and services at: www.bma.org.uk/knowyourrights

If you think you’re not being paid correctly, please get in touch with an advisor: call 0300 123 1233 or email support@bma.org.uk.

Created By

Alex Gay

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Credits:

BMA