What was claimed
Resident doctors got a 29% pay rise last year.
Our verdict
The 29% figure for resident doctors in England actually represents the combined effect of several pay rises over three years, including the current one. It wasn’t all delivered last year.
The Labour MP Oliver Ryan claimed on X on Monday that resident doctors, who are currently on strike over pay and job progression, “got 29% last year & are inexplicably back for more”.
Other people have made similar claims on Facebook.
But as our article on resident doctors’ pay explains, the 29% figure actually represents the combined effect of several pay rises over multiple years.
In England, resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, have received a 28.9% pay rise—on average, in cash terms—across the last three financial years, including the current one. This includes average pay rises of 8.8% for 2023/24, a further 4.05% for the same year agreed with the Labour government after the 2024 election, 8% for 2024/25 agreed at the same time and 5.4% for 2025/26.
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The doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, is asking for a further pay rise to make up for what it claims is the erosion in the value of resident doctors’ pay since 2008/9.
We approached Mr Ryan for comment.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because the 29% figure actually represents the combined effect of several pay rises over three years. It wasn’t all delivered last year.
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