Can I Earn More Than My Consultant as a Locum Doctor?

Locuming is renowned for being a lucrative career path and offers doctors a chance to dictate their own schedule, providing a level of flexibility that is unrivalled by any training, Trust grade, or fellowship role in the NHS.

But have you ever wondered how much locum SHOs and SpRs actually earn, and how that compares to an NHS consultant?

In this article, we'll explore this in more detail and determine whether you can earn more than a consultant while working as a locum doctor.

📈  Calculations

To answer these questions, we’re going to use our brand new Locum Doctor Salary Calculator (LDSC). You can use this calculator to figure outhow much you'd earn as a locum doctor based on your grade, speciality, and the region you're working in.

The LDSC is based on our 2021 data, which consists of over 40,000 jobs that were entered onto Messly across a wide range of grades, specialties, and locations. The exception here is GPs, where we only had a sample size too small to include.

All calculations are based on using a weighted average for an hourly rate, and assume:

    👉  The daily rate is calculated as the weighted average rate multiplied by 10 hours, removing 30 minutes as an unpaid break.

    👉  You'll be working 47 weeks per year, allowing for five weeks of annual leave.

If you want to find out more about how this calculator works, you can read this article here for the methodology. With that out of the way, let’s begin!

💰  How Much do Consultants Earn?

Working full-time, a newly qualified consultant can expect to earn around £84,559 before any premiums or enhancements are added on, rising to £95,144 after working for five years (BMA).

👨  Can a Locum SpR Earn More Than a Consultant?

For this calculation, we’ll make some hypothetical assumptions and enter these into our LDSC.

Let’s pretend you're a Locum SpR, working full-time in Cardiology in the East of England. In this scenario, you'd need to work just three days per week, with no unsocial hours, to earn £85,048. This is slightly more than the salary of a newly qualified consultant's pay (£84,559).

If you were to work full-time, you could expect to command a salary of £141,756. This is more than an NHS consultant can earn, even after 19 years of service.

So, to answer the original question, yes! A locum SpR can absolutely earn more than a consultant's salary.

👶  Can a Locum SHO Earn More Than a Consultant?‍

Let's now enter the same assumptions as our above scenario into our calculator, but for an SHO instead of an SpR. You’ll see that an SHO working full-time without any unsocial hours can expect to earn £96,488.

Adding in unsocial hours to the mix, as an SHO in this scenario you could increase your pay up to £101,676. This amount can be further increased by picking a higher-paid specialty or region to locum in.

You can learn about how the specialty and the region you choose to work in can affect your locum rates in our two related articles here:

    - SHO Locum Rates: Which specialties pay the best?‍

     - Do SHO Locum Rates vary across the UK?

So, to answer this second question, a locum SHO can also out-earn their NHS consultant, especially in the first stages of their career.

💭  Other Considerations

👉  Locum shifts aren't guaranteed. Depending on the hospital's demand, you may need to travel or be flexible with your hours to ensure you get regular shifts. You may also find it beneficial to get into what we call 'The Locum Mindset'. This is essentially a way of seeing your locum work as a business, and being proactive to find locum job opportunities.

👉  There are also a few financial considerations to make, such as monthly expenses, rainy day funds, and finding ways to secure steady work. This is especially important as locum doctors aren't usually entitled to sick pay (except SSP). Read more about this in our article here.

If you need help finding your next locum role, why not try our free locuming app? It takes just five minutes to set up, and lets you set your personal preferences about everything including pay, specialty, location, the types of shifts you’re looking for, and how often you want to work. Only the best hand-picked agencies can contact you with job opportunities once you've approved them.

📚  Further Reading and Useful Resources

‍If you found this article helpful, check out some more of our resources here:‍

    👉  Can I Earn Over £100k as a Locum SHO?

    👉  How Many Days per Week Do I Need to Work as a Locum F3 to Earn My F2 Salary?

    👉  How Much Can a Full-Time Locum Consultant Earn?

   👉  The Locum Toolkit

💰  Managing Your Finances

You might also be interested in our other finance-related articles, to help you plan your finances and boost your rates as a locum doctor:‍

    👉  Managing Your Finance as a Locum Doctor‍

    👉  How to Make a Living as a Full-Time Locum Doctor‍

    👉  Tips to Increase Your Locum Pay‍

    👉  Our Locum Doctor Salary Calculator

   👉  Decoding Your Locum Payslip

‍

This article is part of a wider series of resources and guides that are designed to support you as a locum doctor, covering areas such as getting your first job, managing your finances, understanding your rights, and many more. Visit our Locum Doctor Hub for everything you need to know about locuming today.

Additionally, if you're considering an F3 year, you might also find it useful to look through the selection of resources we've put together in our F3 Resource Hub.