Midwife Salary 2026/27 — From Newly Qualified to Consultant Midwife

The midwife pay ladder — England 2026/27

Full-time, NHS Pension member, no London weighting or student loan. Take-home figures are generated by our verified calculator — run your own exact position on the homepage calculator.

How midwife pay progresses

After NMC registration you start at Band 5 for a preceptorship period — usually 12 to 18 months of supported practice — then move to Band 6, the standard band for practising midwives in hospital, birth centre and community teams alike. Agenda for Change pay is national, so the setting does not change your basic salary: a community midwife and a labour-ward midwife on the same step are paid the same basic pay. Band 7 brings team leadership and specialist roles — safeguarding, bereavement, diabetes and practice development midwives are commonly Band 7 — and consultant midwives and matrons sit at Band 8a and above. In Scotland the same ladder runs on higher scales: a newly qualified midwife starts at £34,544 (£2,167.21 a month take-home) and a Band 6 midwife at £43,231 (£2,600.13 a month).

On-call, nights and continuity teams

Basic salary is only the starting point. Midwifery is a 24-hour service, so night, Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday hours are enhanced under Section 2 of Agenda for Change — time plus 30% for Saturdays and weekday nights and time plus 60% for Sundays and public holidays at Bands 4 to 9. Community and continuity-of-carer midwives also cover on-call rotas; the availability payment for on-call is agreed locally with your trust rather than set nationally, while hours actually called in are paid at the usual rates. Work out what your rota adds with the overtime & unsocial hours calculator. Student midwives are supernumerary and not salaried while training.

Worked example — Band 6 midwife, entry point

Gross pay of £39,959.00 a year becomes £2,429.77 a month in your bank account: pension £3,915.98 (9.8%), income tax £4,694.60 and National Insurance £2,191.12 come off across the year first. Night, weekend and on-call earnings, where your rota earns them, are paid on top of this figure.

Midwife pay part-time, in London and in Scotland

Working 22.5 hours a week (0.6 of full-time), a Band 6 midwife at entry point is paid £23,975.40 gross and takes home £1,627.93 a month — part-time pay is the same hourly rate pro-rata, and because pension tiers are set by your actual pay, the contribution rate can drop too. In Inner London the same Band 6 post takes home £2,857.07 a month: the High Cost Area Supplement is added to basic pay before pension and tax, which lifts both your take-home and your pension. Leave is pro-rata as well — 27 days plus bank holidays on full-time hours, rising with service; check your exact hours with the annual leave calculator. In Scotland, a Band 6 midwife starts on £43,231 and takes home £2,600.13 a month on the 36-hour week — see NHS Scotland pay for the full Scottish scales.

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