The headline comparison, with dates
The table puts the three sets of figures side by side, each with its date and source. The firefighter figures are the National Joint Council rates in circular NJC/2/26, effective 1 July 2026. The NHS figures are the Agenda for Change bands published by NHS Employers for 2026/27, effective 1 April 2026, for England. The police figures are those shown on PolicePay.co.uk for a police constable in England and Wales in 2026; that website is a sister site of this one, and its page did not state the effective date or the percentage award, so treat the police numbers as indicative and check the current scale from your force or the Police Federation.
A single number rarely describes a career. A firefighter's £40,358 is where most people end up after the development period, and it does not rise with service in the national table. A police constable starts lower but has a long incremental scale. An NHS employee moves through steps over years and may progress to the next band by taking a more senior role. The next sections take each in turn.
None of the figures include overtime, allowances, London or high-cost-area supplements, pension contributions or tax. For firefighters specifically, see firefighter salary UK 2026 and take-home pay 2026.
| Role | Start of scale | Top of scale | Time to top (per source) | Effective / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firefighter, NJC national | £31,539 (development) | £40,358 (competent) | Expected within three years (Grey Book) | 1 July 2026, NJC/2/26 |
| Police constable, England and Wales | £33,969 | Over £52,000 | Seven years | 2026, PolicePay.co.uk |
| NHS Agenda for Change band 5 | £32,073 | £39,043 | 2 years to middle step, then 3 years to top | 1 April 2026, NHS Employers |
| NHS Agenda for Change band 6 | £39,959 | £48,117 | 2 years to middle step, then 3 years to top | 1 April 2026, NHS Employers |
Basic pay only. The police figures are from PolicePay.co.uk and the page did not state an effective date. Paramedic bands are addressed in the paramedic section below.
Firefighter pay: two stages, then promotion
Firefighter pay has a simple national structure. A new firefighter is on the development rate (£31,539, £14.40 an hour) while working under supervision and being assessed; once competent they are on £40,358 (£18.43 an hour). The Grey Book expects most firefighters to be competent within three years of entry. There are no yearly increments above that, but there are other routes to more pay: a CPD payment after five years at competent level, promotion to Crew Manager (£42,892 to £44,742) and above, the flexible duty supplement from Station Manager, and overtime.
The working week is set out in the Grey Book: basic hours average 42 a week including three hours of meal breaks in every 24 hours on the shift system. Overtime is time and a half for Watch Manager and below (£27.65 an hour for a competent firefighter), and on-call firefighters have a separate retainer-based structure. London Fire Brigade has its own higher local scale (£47,991 for a Competent Firefighter from 1 July 2026), so a comparison that uses the national rate understates London.
For the details see firefighter pay progression, London firefighter salary and firefighter overtime rates.
Free toolFirefighter pay calculatorSee what a firefighter salary is worth after tax, National Insurance and pension.Open the free pay calculator →Police constable pay: a seven-year scale
PolicePay.co.uk states that a starting constable in England and Wales earns £33,969 as of 2026, rising by annual increases to over £52,000 at the top of the scale after seven years of service, and that police pay is based on rank and years of service, with additional allowances for London and specific roles. The page did not give the exact top-of-scale figure or the effective date in the text reviewed, so this guide does not print a precise top figure.
That structure is close to the reverse of the firefighter one: the police scale starts higher than firefighter development pay (£33,969 against £31,539, a difference of £2,430) and lower than the competent rate (by £6,389), and then it climbs over several years to exceed it. At the top of the scale the constable figure of over £52,000 is more than £11,600 above £40,358, but it takes seven years to reach.
Police also have other pay structures for higher ranks and specialist roles, and forces can pay allowances. If you are considering a career choice on pay grounds, compare pay at the same point in your career, for example at year three and at year seven, rather than comparing starting and top rates.
Paramedic and NHS band pay
NHS pay in England is set by Agenda for Change bands. NHS Employers publishes the 2026/27 scales effective 1 April 2026: band 5 runs from £32,073 at entry through £34,592 to £39,043 at the top, and band 6 from £39,959 through £42,170 to £48,117. Progression takes two years from entry to the intermediate step and three years from there to the top. The full scales also include hourly rates and Higher Cost Area Supplements for inner, outer and fringe London areas.
Paramedics are employed on these bands, and advertised roles for newly qualified paramedics have commonly been at band 5 with experienced paramedic roles at band 6, so the band 5 and band 6 figures are the relevant ones for most people asking about paramedic pay. That mapping is a general description and was not confirmed from the NHS Employers page reviewed for this guide, so check the band on the specific vacancy or with your employer before relying on it. Ambulance services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own NHS pay arrangements and are not covered by the England figures here.
The comparison with firefighter pay is therefore approximate. A competent firefighter's £40,358 is £1,315 above the top of band 5 and £399 above the start of band 6; the top of band 6 (£48,117) is £7,759 above it. The NHS scale is also a national one that adds high-cost-area supplements in some areas, which the NJC scale does not.
| Comparison point | Figure | Difference from £40,358 |
|---|---|---|
| Police constable, start | £33,969 | -£6,389 |
| NHS band 5, entry | £32,073 | -£8,285 |
| NHS band 5, top | £39,043 | -£1,315 |
| NHS band 6, entry | £39,959 | -£399 |
| NHS band 6, top | £48,117 | +£7,759 |
| Firefighter, development | £31,539 | -£8,819 |
Differences are calculated from the figures in the previous table. Basic pay only.
Why the comparison is harder than it looks
Comparing three public-sector pay systems requires attention to five differences. First, structure: two stages per rank (fire), seven annual points (police) and banded steps (NHS) mean the same job title can be on very different points for years. Second, timing: fire pay awards take effect on 1 July, NHS awards on 1 April, and police awards on a different date again, so at any moment one group may have received an award that the others have not.
Third, hours and patterns: the Grey Book's 42-hour average week for firefighters, including meal breaks, is not the same as the contractual hours of the other two, and shift patterns, nights and rest days differ. Fourth, allowances and premium pay: firefighters have CPD, flexible duty supplements, on-call retainers and overtime rules; the NHS has high-cost-area supplements and unsocial-hours enhancements; police have allowances for London and specific roles. This guide does not quantify them because comparable, verified figures were not available for all three.
Fifth, pension and retirement: each profession has its own public service pension scheme, with different contribution rates, accrual and normal pension ages. The firefighter figures on this site use FPS 2015 contribution bands of 11.09% to 15.59%; the other schemes' rates were not verified for this guide. A higher salary with a lower pension benefit is not necessarily better, so read the firefighter pension 2015 guide before comparing.
Pay at year 1, year 3 and year 7
One way to compare is to look at the same point in each career. At entry, a police constable (£33,969) and NHS band 5 (£32,073) start above a development firefighter (£31,539), by £2,430 and £534 respectively. By around year three, a firefighter who has been assessed as competent has reached £40,358 and typically no further national step, while band 5 is at the middle step (£34,592 after two years, on the NHS scale) and a constable is partway up a seven-point scale.
By year seven, a constable is at the top of the scale (over £52,000 according to PolicePay.co.uk) and a band 5 employee who has served five years is at the top step (£39,043) and may have moved to band 6. A firefighter at year seven is likely to be still on £40,358 unless promoted or awarded CPD, which becomes available five years after competence and adds an amount set by the fire authority (reported range £400 to £1,346 across authorities in 2026), or has been promoted to Crew Manager (£42,892 to £44,742).
This is a simplification that ignores promotion speed, which differs a great deal. For the value of each step up in the fire service see what promotion is worth, and use the promotion calculator to test your own case.
| Career point | Firefighter (NJC) | Police constable | NHS band 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | £31,539 | £33,969 | £32,073 |
| After about 3 years | £40,358 (if competent) | Part-way up the scale (exact point not verified) | £34,592 (middle step from year 2) |
| After about 7 years | £40,358, plus CPD if awarded (reported £400 to £1,346) | Over £52,000 (top of scale) | £39,043 (top step after 5 years) |
Police and NHS figures from PolicePay.co.uk and NHS Employers; the police intermediate points were not verified. The firefighter row assumes no promotion.
Take-home pay: why gross figures mislead
Gross comparisons miss the pension. On the site's 2026/27 England model a competent firefighter on £40,358 pays a 12.59% FPS 2015 contribution (£5,081.07), income tax of £4,541.39 and National Insurance of £2,223.04, leaving £28,512.50 a year, or £2,376.04 a month. Tax and National Insurance are the same for anyone on the same gross salary, but the contribution percentage depends on each scheme's rules, so equal gross salaries do not give equal take-home pay.
This guide does not calculate net pay for police and NHS roles, because it did not verify their contribution rates. If you want to compare properly, find the contribution rate for each scheme, apply it to the same gross figure and run the numbers through a calculator. The pay calculator does the firefighter version and lets you set your own pension percentage.
Also compare the value of time: the Grey Book's shift systems include at least two periods of 24 hours free from duty each week, and rest days differ across systems. The firefighter shift patterns and duty systems guide explains the local variations.
Overtime, allowances and extras compared
Firefighters have a well-defined overtime structure: time and a half for Watch Manager and below, double time on a public holiday, with rules on pre-arranged and casual overtime. A competent firefighter's overtime is £27.65 an hour and public holiday double time is about £36.86. A Station Manager or above on the flexible duty system receives a pensionable 20% supplement instead of overtime.
The NHS scale has Higher Cost Area Supplements for designated inner, outer and fringe London areas, as noted on the NHS Employers page. PolicePay.co.uk notes additional allowances for London and specific roles for police. The values of those allowances were not verified for this guide and depend on the employer, location and role. London Fire Brigade's scale is a local one with London weighting built into basic pay.
The practical advice is to add up all the recurring items for the specific job you are considering, using the employer's own pay statement, and then compare annual totals. The firefighter allowances guide lists the firefighter side, and the paid Personal Pay Report gives a personalised firefighter pay summary.
What could not be verified
This guide is deliberately cautious. It does not state the police constable top-of-scale figure to the pound, the police effective date or the percentage award, because the source page did not give them. It does not state contribution rates or retirement ages for the police and NHS schemes. It does not state the paramedic band for each grade from a primary source, and it does not cover the devolved nations' NHS and police pay, which follow separate arrangements.
It also does not compare hours. The Grey Book's 42-hour average firefighter week is verified; the police and NHS contractual hours were not reviewed. Nor does it quantify allowances or shift enhancements. All of those would be needed for a full comparison.
If you are making a decision, treat this page as a starting point and check current figures with the employer, the Police Federation or NHS Employers for police and NHS roles, and the NJC circular for firefighters. Nothing here is careers, financial or pension advice.
Frequently asked questions
Do firefighters earn more than police officers?
It depends on the point in the career. A competent firefighter (£40,358) earns more than a starting constable (about £33,969) but less than a constable at the top of the scale, which PolicePay.co.uk puts at over £52,000 after seven years. Allowances, overtime and pensions differ.
Do firefighters earn more than paramedics?
A competent firefighter's £40,358 is above the top of NHS band 5 (£39,043) and just above the start of band 6 (£39,959), and below the top of band 6 (£48,117). Paramedics are paid on Agenda for Change bands, so the outcome depends on their band and step.
What is the starting salary of a firefighter compared with police?
A firefighter starts on the development rate of £31,539 from 1 July 2026; a police constable in England and Wales starts on about £33,969 in 2026, according to PolicePay.co.uk. The firefighter moves to £40,358 when assessed as competent, expected within three years.
How long does it take to reach top pay?
A firefighter is expected to reach the competent rate within three years, and there are no further national increments. A constable takes seven years to reach the top of the scale, and NHS bands 5 and 6 take five years (two, then three) from entry to the top step.
Is firefighter pay the same across the UK?
The NJC basic pay scale applies in most services, but London Fire Brigade has its own higher local scale, and allowances vary. NHS and police pay in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland follow their own arrangements, so compare like with like.
Which job has the best pension?
This guide cannot say. Each profession has its own public service pension scheme with different contributions, accrual and retirement ages, and only the firefighter scheme is covered in detail on this site. Compare the scheme documents and your own circumstances.