Pay comparability for medical and dental officers in the armed forces
The work from IDR compares pay for MODOs with equivalent roles in the NHS. Supplementary work on take-home pay also takes into account pension contributions.
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This study from Incomes Data Research (IDR) examines the comparative pay position for a number of medical and dental officer roles in the armed forces. This includes some where broad consensus has been reached on the most appropriate NHS comparators, and other more difficult-to-benchmark roles, primarily General Medical Practitioners and General Dental Practitioners. The approach goes beyond the scope of a typical role evaluation and benchmarking exercise and considers how closely the military roles match to comparable jobs in the civilian sector by identifying core underlying skills and features of the roles and seeking these in comparable roles.
The report finds that, with the X-Factor excluded from pay comparisons, pay for medical officers is generally behind the comparators, while pay for dental officers and doctors in training is broadly in line with that for comparators.
The supplementary work on take-home pay shows that the value of the MODO package increases relative to its NHS comparator in each case, due to the absence of pension contributions in the armed forces. This effect is stronger for higher paid roles due to the tiered pension contribution rate in the NHS. It is reduced to an extent by pension taxation for the more senior roles.
The AFPRB will consider this research, alongside other evidence, when making pay recommendations for MODOs in 2023.