Healthcare · Wales
Nurse salary in Cardiff, 2026
Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025, adjusted for the Wales regional pay differential. Updated 2026-04-21. Methodology.
Nurse salary by experience in Cardiff
That headline median masks a wide spread once you split Cardiff nurses by years of experience. The four bands below reflect what each tier typically commands in Cardiff — local figures, not UK averages, with each step usually triggered by a level change rather than an annual increment.
| Experience level | Salary range | Median |
|---|---|---|
| Entry (0-2 yrs) | £23,085 – £29,497 | £26,291 |
| Mid (3-5 yrs) | £28,263 – £36,575 | £32,419 |
| Senior (6-10 yrs) | £42,750 – £54,625 | £48,688 |
| Lead (10+ yrs) | £56,406 – £77,188 | £66,797 |
Gross figures only tell half the story — what actually lands in your bank account depends on tax, NI, student loan and pension. Run your own number below.
Take-home pay calculator · 2024/25
Nurse, Cardiff
£26,263/yr · £505/wk · effective rate 21.0%
| Gross salary | £33,250 |
| Pension (5%) | −£1,663 |
| Income tax | −£3,804 |
| National Insurance | −£1,521 |
| Net take-home | £26,263 |
Earn more as a Nurse
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Pay ranges and take-home are the planning numbers; what you can actually move into right now is a different question. Live nurse vacancies in Cardiff are below.
Open vacancies · via Reed
9 live Nurse jobs in Cardiff
Live listings refresh daily. View the full set on Reed.
See all Nurse jobs in Cardiff →It's also worth seeing how Cardiff stacks up — both against the UK average and against other cities nurses commonly relocate between.
Nurse pay: Cardiff versus UK average
Nurse pay across other UK cities
NHS Agenda for Change vs private-sector pay for Nurses in Cardiff
For NHS-employed staff in particular, the published pay tables only describe the basic-band figure; the true take-home includes layers the median figure can't capture.
For NHS-employed Nurses in Cardiff, pay follows Agenda for Change bands rather than market rates. That puts the median around £33,250, with the High Cost Area Supplement adding 5–20% on top inside the London commuter belt. Specialist add-ons, on-call rotas and unsocial-hours premia can lift effective annual pay by 15–30% above the headline band.
Private-sector and locum work is where pay flexes. Locum Nurses in Cardiff can clear the upper quartile (£40,375) on annualised earnings, but with no NHS pension accrual, no sick pay, and a heavier admin load. The pension calculation matters more than most Nurses realise — the NHS scheme alone is worth roughly 20% of salary in employer contribution, which a private-sector base needs to clear before it's actually a pay rise.
Nurse salaries in cities near Cardiff
If Cardiff doesn't quite work for the role — commute, rent, partner's job — the same role in nearby cities tells you what the trade-off looks like in £ terms. The four comparisons below show how pay shifts within the same region — multipliers come from the ONS regional median pay differential, so the figures already account for the regional gap.
Other healthcare jobs in Cardiff
Adjacent healthcare roles often pay differently to nurse for similar skill profiles, which is useful when you're choosing what to specialise in next. Salaries for closely related healthcare roles in Cardiff are below — useful when comparing routes into or out of the Nurse track.
Roles with overlapping skills
Common questions about nurse pay in Cardiff, answered with the underlying figures from the same dataset used above.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average Nurse salary in Cardiff?
£33,250 per year is the median Nurse salary in Cardiff, drawn from ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data adjusted for the regional pay differential. Lower quartile sits at £27,075; upper quartile at £40,375.
How much does a Nurse earn per month in Cardiff?
About £2,771 gross, which works out at roughly £1,995 take-home after income tax and National Insurance for the 2024/25 tax year (assuming no student loan and a 5% pension contribution). Use the calculator above for a number that matches your own circumstances.
What is the starting salary for a Nurse in Cardiff?
Entry-level Nurses in Cardiff typically start between £23,085 and £29,497. Pay then steps up at the 3-year and 6-year marks — mid-level practitioners earn £28,263–£36,575, with senior roles reaching £42,750–£54,625.
Is Cardiff a good place to work as a Nurse?
It depends on what you weight more heavily — pay, cost of living or commute. Cardiff pays 5% below the UK Nurse median, with major local employers including Admiral Group, BBC Wales, Principality. Cost of living runs at 81 on the UK-100 index, so £33,250 here has the real purchasing power of £41,049 at the national average. Unemployment of 4.3% gives a useful read on how tight the local labour market is — under 4% generally favours candidates on pay.
What skills do Nurses need to earn more?
Reaching the upper-quartile £40,375 band tends to come down to depth in Clinical care, NMC registration, Medication administration, plus a track record that lets you credibly take on senior or lead-level scope. Career outlook for the role is high, so the speciality areas worth doubling down on are Patient assessment.
Salary base figures: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (2025), with regional adjustment from ONS regional median gross pay tables. Live job counts (where shown): Reed Jobseeker API, refreshed daily. Take-home calculations apply 2024/25 UK tax-year thresholds for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.