What a nurse on permanent nights really earns: £10,900 a year, just for the hours the rest of us are asleep.

NHS staff who work nights and weekends earn unsocial-hours enhancements — a percentage on top of their basic hourly rate under Section 2 of Agenda for Change. For a Band 5 nurse on the £31,049 entry point (£16/hour), a nights-heavy rota adds about £10,929 a year — taking gross pay to roughly £41,978, without a single hour of overtime.

How the enhancement builds up

Bands 4–9 earn +30% for weekday nights and Saturdays, and +60% for Sundays and bank holidays. On a typical full-time rota weighted toward nights, those percentages stack up week after week into a substantial, permanent addition to pay — money earned purely for when the hours fall, not for working extra. It's also pensionable and counts toward maternity pay calculations.

Add up your own rota to see your exact enhancement.