A British doctor with nearly a decade of experience left people outraged after sharing his wage slip.
The dismal reality of working in healthcare was revealed by London-based Souradip Mookerjee on X.
He spoke out in February, when junior doctors were once again striking over a long-running pay dispute between the British Medical Association (BMA) union and the government.
Posting a screenshot via his X account,@souramoo, Mookerjee explained: “My salary as a doctor in London working 40h weeks after 9 years of uni at Cambridge and a phd #BMADoctorsVoteYes”.
An initial payment of £3,585.76 (or £2,680.84) was shown on the payslip.
Monthly, Mookerjee earns just £1,671.47 ($2,231.81) after taxes and other deductions.
To put it in perspective, Mookerjee doesn’t have much to live on when his monthly rent in London is £935 (about $1,250).
People were so shocked by the pitiful salary that they wanted to know how much in taxes Mookerjee was paying.
A screenshot of the breakdown, showing only his national insurance—the tax that the British pay for universal healthcare through the National Health Service (NHS)—pension deductions, and student loan payments—was his response.
One person asked: “Is there a London weighting? £1671 would only just cover rent and public transport in London,” to which Mookerjee replied: “This is including London weighting and you are correct.”
Souradip Mookerjee confessed that his net income is so low that it barely covers his living expenses.
Another person shared their own payslip as a first-year junior doctor. Only, this was from 13 years ago in 2010.
And shockingly, their wage was marginally more than Mookerjee’s, at £1677.02.
Another person weighed in: “For reference, this is only £200 more than I was paid in my first job 25 years ago AND I was provided with free hospital accommodation AND no tuition fees.
“Utterly, utterly unacceptable.”
Another commented: “This is outrageous! I cannot believe that a highly educated, highly skilled person with such huge responsibility can be paid so little.
“You and everyone who works in the NHS deserve so much more.”
And a fellow graduate with a similar experience wrote: “Eight years of university got me pretty much the same upon graduation, wages are depressed as hell across the board and having a PhD gets you sod all it seems.
“Sometimes think I would have been better off bringing my swimming badges into the interview.”