💸 GP Pay Explained: What You Actually Get Paid

If you've ever looked at your payslip and felt totally lost, you’re not alone. Between basic pay, additional hours, weekend allowances, and flexible pay premia, it can all feel a bit of a muddle..

This guide breaks down every part of your salary as a GP registrar under the 2016 junior doctor contract, so you can understand exactly what you’re earning, and how much you should be getting on each pay slip!

It will probably make more sense if you bring up your most recent payslip and follow along. If you can't find one, here is my last pay slip as an example

🧾 Basic Salary (Nodal Pay Points)

The basic salary is the main chunk of your pay as a GP registrar — it’s the core amount you're paid for working a 40-hour week, before any extras like nights, weekends, or GP-specific bonuses are added.

This basic pay is determined by your training grade (ST1, ST2 or ST3) and is reviewed annually as part of national pay uplifts.

💸 As of the latest 2025 Pay & Conditions Circular:

ST1: £52,656
ST2: £52,656
ST3: £65,048

✅ This base salary forms the foundation of your payslip. Most other pay elements, like additional hours or weekend uplifts are calculated on top of this amount, and are separate on the payslip.

📌 LTFT trainees are paid pro rata based on their agreed hours.

📈 Basic pay is subject to change with each government pay award, including annual uplifts or agreements following industrial action.

🔗 The latest figures are always published in Annex A of the current NHS pay circular:
👉 View the latest circular

➕ Additional Hours

Your rota might include additional hours above the 40-hour average, especially if you’re working in a busy hospital placement. These are ‘non-premium hours’ which means that they are extra hours about the 40-hour average but they are not eligible for enhanced rates (i.e. they're not classified as nights, weekends etc).

🕒 These are paid at your normal basic hourly rate:

1/40th of your basic weekly salary for each additional hour worked.

Example:
If you're doing 48 hours/week on average, you'll get paid 8 extra hours on top of your basic salary at the same hourly rate.

📌 On your payslip, this usually appears as something like ‘Addn Roster Hours NP’ (non-premium additional rostered hours).

📆 Weekend Allowance

If you're regularly working weekends, which is common during ST1 or ST2 hospital placements, you’ll receive a percentage uplift on your basic salary, depending on how frequently you're on the weekend rota.

📈 The percentage is calculated according to the frequency of your weekend shifts, and based on your basic salary. So if you're doing 1 in 2 weekends, your weekend allowance is 15% of your basic pay - i.e. Basic Salary × 1.15

Frequency	Allowance
1 in 2 weekends	15%
1 in 3	10%
1 in 4	7.5%
1 in 5	6%
1 in 6	5%
1 in 7	4%
1 in 8	3%
Less frequent than 1 in 8	None

⚖️ LTFT doctors are paid a pro rata percentage based on their contribution to the rota.

🌙 Night Shift Enhancements

Any hours worked between 21:00 and 07:00 attract an enhancement of +37% of your hourly basic rate.

🌓 This also applies if:

Your shift starts between 20:00 and 23:59 and is 8+ hours long (enhanced until 10:00 next day)
Your shift finishes between 00:00 and 04:01 — in which case the entire shift gets enhanced

Again, these are calculated across your rota and paid as an averaged monthly uplift. They’ll appear on your payslip as ‘Night Duty 37%’ or similar.

🧠 Flexible Pay Premium (FPP)

The Flexible Pay Premium is part of a national policy to boost recruitment into historically hard-to-fill training programmes (despite current competition ratios..). General Practice has historically been one of these shortage areas, so GP registrars benefit from the FPP.

🎁 The Flexible Pay Premia is paid in addition to your basic salary and is independent of your rota. As of the most recent pay circular (2025), the FPP is equivalent to £11,118 per year.

❗Important: The FPP is paid only while you're in a GP placement. It’s paused during hospital rotations (you get on-call supplements instead, even if you're still on the GP training programme.

✅ Applies during ST1, ST2, and ST3 (as long as you're in a GP post)
✅ Paid monthly throughout the year (i.e. £11,118/12 per month)
✅ LTFT trainees receive a pro rata amount based on hours worked

📌 The amount is fixed at the rate in place when you enter the training programme. So if FPP goes up the year after you start, tough luck — you don’t get the increase.

🔍 The current rate and eligibility rules are laid out in Annex A of the NHS Pay & Conditions Circular:
👉 View latest circular

⏰ Less Than Full Time (LTFT) Allowance

If you’re training LTFT under the 2016 contract, you’ll also receive a £1,000/year allowance, paid in monthly instalments.This payment is to recognise the increased costs associated with LTFT training, and is not pro-rata. Is is payable to all eligible LTFT trainees.

💡 This is on top of your pro rata pay and any FPP.

🏙️ London Weighting

📍If you’re working in London, you’ll receive a London weighting allowance, set at a fixed cash amount.

Paid pro rata for LTFT
Not included when calculating other enhancements

Check your local employment contract for the current value - it’s not much.. but every little helps!

🧾 Example

All in all, you'll end up with something like this, although the basic pay and FPP change every year. Remember, you can check the latest figures here.

🔜 Next Up: Decoding Your Payslip

Struggling to demystify your payslip each month? Not sure what “Addn Roster Hours NP” or “FPP” actually looks like on your payslip?

👀 In the next article, we’ll break down your payslip line by line, so you can understand exactly what you’re getting paid and more importantly.. spot any errors!