As industrial action returns to the spotlight, the spectrum of views on which workers should receive pay rises have come into sharp focus. 

With resident doctors’ strikes in the run up to Christmas hiring season underway, discussions over wages, working conditions and fairness in essential public services have sparked a broader reckoning over who is valued, and how that value is reflected in pay. 

Employment Hero’s Employment Uncovered data, based on a nationwide survey of 1,000 UK workers, suggests the public has clear opinions on the matter. 

When asked which roles most deserve a pay rise, care workers topped the list, with 50% of workers naming the care industry as most deserving of higher pay. 

Nurses and doctors followed closely behind, alongside emergency service workers, all cited by 45% of respondents. Teachers came next, with 27% saying they should receive a pay rise.

Care and Healthcare Top the List

The pattern is telling. The jobs people most want to see rewarded appear to be those centred on care, public service and emotional labour – roles that have remained under sustained pressure since the pandemic and continue to face high demand, staffing shortages and intense workloads.

It in part explains why industrial action in healthcare inspires such strong responses. However, some surveys suggest public sentiment is shifting. Polling from Ipsos shows that public opposition to the strikes has risen from 31% in June 2024 to 45% in November 2025, while support for the strikes have decreased from 52% to 28% in the same period. 

The shift suggests growing tension between sympathy for workers and wider frustration over disruption, cost pressures and the limits of public sector pay settlements.

The Growing Gap Between Pay and Perceived Value

Beneath that tension sits a deeper mismatch: the gap between who is considered more deserving of higher pay and where pay rises are actually landing. 

That imbalance fuels frustration. When work is socially valued but financially constrained, pay becomes a proxy for something bigger than income alone: recognition, fairness and sustainability.

Most Workers Got a Pay Rise. Many Still Feel Worse Off

Broader pressures help explain why dissatisfaction persists. Employment Uncovered shows that more than half of employees, 56%, reported receiving a pay rise in the past year. On paper, that suggests progress. In reality, it has not eased the sense of financial strain many workers feel.

Kevin Fitzgerald, UK Managing Director of Employment Hero, says that disconnect is becoming harder to ignore. “The majority of UK workers have technically had a pay rise over the past year, but for many it still doesn’t feel like it,” he explains. “When wage growth sits below inflation, people experience it as a pay cut in real terms. That’s a huge pressure point for households, and a brewing risk for employers who can’t afford to lose talent.”

Why Pay Remains a Flashpoint

For many workers, the issue is no longer just about whether pay is rising, but whether it is rising fast enough to keep pace with everyday costs.

As a result, wage dissatisfaction can build quietly. People may stay in their roles, but as engagement drops, morale suffers and loyalty erodes over time.

Support for or opposition against pay rises is rarely just about one profession’s pay packet. It speaks to unresolved questions about value, affordability and how long essential work can be stretched before something gives.

As the UK heads into 2026, pay is unlikely to fall out of the spotlight. Inflation may have eased, but expectations have shifted. Who deserves a pay rise, and what that rise should actually deliver, remain questions that workers, employers and policymakers are still grappling with.