Healthcare · East of England

Radiographer salary in Cambridge, 2026

Median annual salary £46,000 based on ONS ASHE, East of England regional adjustment
Lower quartile
£36,800
Upper quartile
£57,500
vs UK median
+15%
Open jobs (est.)
2
Radiographers in Cambridge earn a median £46,000 per year — 15% well above the UK average for the role, shaped by the Cambridge–Norwich research and pharma cluster. The middle 50% of earners sit between £36,800 and £57,500, and senior practitioners with a strong specialism push past £80,040. Pay rises are typically banded by experience rather than annual increment, so the route to higher earnings is changing employer or stepping up a level — not waiting for a cost-of-living adjustment.

Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025, adjusted for the East of England regional pay differential. Updated 2026-04-21. Methodology.

Median
£32,200£74,750
Lower quartile£36,800
Median£46,000
Upper quartile£57,500

Radiographer salary by experience in Cambridge

That headline median masks a wide spread once you split Cambridge radiographers by years of experience. The four bands below reflect what each tier typically commands in Cambridge — 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) £29,498 – £37,691 £33,595
Mid (3-5 yrs) £39,100 – £50,600 £44,850
Senior (6-10 yrs) £60,030 – £76,705 £68,368
Lead (10+ yrs) £79,206 – £108,388 £93,797
Cost-of-living adjusted: A £46,000 Radiographer salary in Cambridge buys what £40,000 would buy at the UK average — that's 0% more real purchasing power than the national figure.

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

Radiographer, Cambridge

£2,915take-home per month

£34,984/yr · £673/wk · effective rate 23.9%

Gross salary£46,000
Pension (5%)£2,300
Income tax£6,226
National Insurance£2,490
Net take-home£34,984

Earn more as a Radiographer

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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 radiographer vacancies in Cambridge are below.

Open vacancies · via Reed

2 live Radiographer jobs in Cambridge

Live listings refresh daily. View the full set on Reed.

See all Radiographer jobs in Cambridge

It's also worth seeing how Cambridge stacks up — both against the UK average and against other cities radiographers commonly relocate between.

Radiographer pay: Cambridge versus UK average

Cambridge
£46,000
UK average
£40,000

Radiographer pay across other UK cities

Cambridge
£46,000
£51,200
£40,800
£39,200
£38,800

NHS Agenda for Change vs private-sector pay for Radiographers in Cambridge

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 Radiographers in Cambridge, pay follows Agenda for Change bands rather than market rates. That puts the median around £46,000, 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 Radiographers in Cambridge can clear the upper quartile (£57,500) on annualised earnings, but with no NHS pension accrual, no sick pay, and a heavier admin load. The pension calculation matters more than most Radiographers 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.

Radiographer salaries in cities near Cambridge

If Cambridge 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 Cambridge

Adjacent healthcare roles often pay differently to radiographer for similar skill profiles, which is useful when you're choosing what to specialise in next. Salaries for closely related healthcare roles in Cambridge are below — useful when comparing routes into or out of the Radiographer track.

Roles with overlapping skills

Common questions about radiographer pay in Cambridge, answered with the underlying figures from the same dataset used above.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average Radiographer salary in Cambridge?

£46,000 per year is the median Radiographer salary in Cambridge, drawn from ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data adjusted for the regional pay differential. Lower quartile sits at £36,800; upper quartile at £57,500.

How much does a Radiographer earn per month in Cambridge?

About £3,833 gross, which works out at roughly £2,760 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 Radiographer in Cambridge?

Entry-level Radiographers in Cambridge typically start between £29,498 and £37,691. Pay then steps up at the 3-year and 6-year marks — mid-level practitioners earn £39,100–£50,600, with senior roles reaching £60,030–£76,705.

Is Cambridge a good place to work as a Radiographer?

Yes — strong on both pay and labour-market tightness. Cambridge pays 15% above the UK Radiographer median, with major local employers including AstraZeneca, ARM, Microsoft Research. Cost of living runs at 115 on the UK-100 index, so £46,000 here has the real purchasing power of £40,000 at the national average. Unemployment of 2.6% gives a useful read on how tight the local labour market is — under 4% generally favours candidates on pay.

What skills do Radiographers need to earn more?

Reaching the upper-quartile £57,500 band tends to come down to depth in MRI, CT, X-ray, plus a track record that lets you credibly take on senior or lead-level scope. Career outlook for the role is medium, so the speciality areas worth doubling down on are Patient care and HCPC registration.

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.