What Do Healthcare Jobs Pay? Salaries, Job List, and More

Healthcare can be as financially rewarding as it is personally rewarding. In healthcare, you can work in various roles, such as face-to-face with patients or behind the scenes in an office role. 

According to Payscale, the average annual salary for the healthcare industry in the United Kingdom is £35,000 [1]. While some positions greatly exceed the national median salary many times over, others may fall below it. Your average annual salary may depend on factors such as your job title, company, educational background, and years of experience you bring to the role.

Discover the pay range you can expect to find in the healthcare industry, plus find a list of common healthcare professions, their most common qualifications, and their median annual wage. 

Healthcare jobs and salaries 

Your expected pay in the healthcare industry may depend on your position. To help you get a better idea of the kind of jobs that meet your financial goals, learn more about some of the biggest healthcare areas, including a list of associated jobs and their salaries. 

*All annual base salary data is sourced from Glassdoor as of February 2025 and does not include additional pay, such as commission and benefits.

Dentistry

Dental professionals help patients maintain their teeth, gums, and oral health. Responsibilities range from cleaning and preparing teeth for medical procedures to diagnosing and treating gum diseases such as gingivitis or periodontitis. Typically, dentists operate their own businesses, set their own schedules, and don’t handle medical emergencies. 

Diet, exercise, and physical health

Healthcare professionals in this area help others achieve their physical fitness goals and treat musculoskeletal ailments. If you’re looking for healthcare roles focused on physical health and working closely with patients, you may be well-suited for this work. 

Healthcare administration 

Healthcare administration is integral to providing high-quality healthcare cost-effectively and efficiently. As a professional in healthcare administration, you ensure that healthcare facilities operate as smoothly as possible. Your responsibilities range from managing patients’ medical records to overseeing the entire daily operations of the organisation. Similarly, jobs can range from those requiring only GCSEs (or equivalent) in English and maths (IT skills are a bonus) to those requiring a postgraduate degree and many years of related experience. 

Health informatics

Health informatics professionals use data analytics and technology to improve health outcomes and the operational efficiency of healthcare facilities. As a largely data-oriented profession, health informatics is an in-demand field with growing applications across the healthcare industry. 

Nurses, aides, and assistants

Medical professionals working as nurses, aides, or assistants directly assist patients and sometimes administer treatments. The intimate nature of the work means that it is best suited to those who enjoy close contact with others. The most advanced positions, such as nurse practitioners (NP), often perform many of the same duties as physicians. 

Optometry  

Professionals in the field of optometry assist individuals with their eye health. This can involve fitting them for glasses or diagnosing and treating eye conditions such as cataracts or glaucoma.

Physicians, surgeons, and other medical specialists

Most of these medical professionals have the highest professional degrees in their fields, often requiring many years of education. As a result, they are qualified to diagnose and treat a wide range of medical conditions, from common ailments to complex diseases, using medical and surgical interventions. 

Public and community health 

Public and community health professionals work to ensure the well-being of groups of people rather than individuals. As a result, the field offers diverse career opportunities, from interacting directly with patients to conducting in-depth research on diseases in clinical settings. 

Technologists, technicians, and specialists

Technologists, technicians, or specialists in healthcare handle technical machinery or programmes that support physicians or hospital administrators. While in many cases, this means operating specific machinery—such as sonography or MRIs—in others, it may mean creating and maintaining medical records. 

Therapists 

Although the term is most often associated with mental health professionals, therapists can be individuals who are trained to treat a variety of disorders. While these conditions can be psychological in some cases, in others, they can be physical, respiratory, or something else entirely. Due to the sensitive nature of their work, therapists must have specific credentials to practice. 

Start your healthcare career with Coursera

Gaining the required medical knowledge and training is the first step to working with patients, creating treatment plans, and healing illness and injury. As you prepare to start your journey toward a healthcare career, consider taking a flexible and globally available online course through Coursera.

Rice University’s Medical Terminology Specialisation introduces learners to the terms used to describe the 10 major organ systems. Meanwhile, The University of Colorado’s Become an EMT Specialisation teaches you the skills to provide first responder emergency medical care.