Firefighter pay in Wales in 2026
Wales is served by three fire and rescue services: Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, North Wales Fire and Rescue Service and South Wales Fire and Rescue Service. Their firefighters, crew managers and watch managers are Grey Book employees, and their pay follows the National Joint Council circulars. For 2026 the relevant circular is NJC/2/26, which applied a 3.8% award from 1 July 2026 and set £31,539 for a Development Firefighter and £40,358 for a Competent Firefighter.
The evidence that Welsh services follow the national table is in their recruitment. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service's wholetime transfer advert, with a closing date of 27 May 2026, listed a Competent WDS Firefighter at £38,881, the competent rate that applied from 1 July 2025 in circular NJC/3/25. After 1 July 2026 the same grade is on £40,358. That is exactly the pattern you would expect if the service is applying each NJC circular in turn.
If you want the picture across every UK nation, start with firefighter salary UK 2026. This guide focuses on what is specific to Wales, and the pay calculator will turn any of the salaries below into a take-home figure.
| Role | Stage | Annual basic | Hourly | Overtime x1.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firefighter | Development | £31,539 | £14.40 | £21.60 |
| Firefighter | Competent | £40,358 | £18.43 | £27.65 |
| Crew Manager | Development | £42,892 | £19.59 | £29.39 |
| Crew Manager | Competent | £44,742 | £20.43 | £30.65 |
| Watch Manager | Development | £45,711 | £20.87 | £31.31 |
| Watch Manager | Competent A | £46,980 | £21.45 | £32.18 |
| Watch Manager | Competent B | £50,034 | £22.85 | £34.28 |
| Station Manager | Development | £52,040 | £23.76 | £35.64 |
| Station Manager | Competent A | £53,604 | £24.48 | £36.72 |
| Station Manager | Competent B | £57,402 | £26.21 | £39.32 |
| Group Manager | Development | £59,937 | £27.37 | Not published |
| Group Manager | Competent A | £61,736 | £28.19 | Not published |
| Group Manager | Competent B | £66,445 | £30.34 | Not published |
| Area Manager | Development | £70,368 | £32.13 | Not published |
| Area Manager | Competent A | £72,476 | £33.09 | Not published |
| Area Manager | Competent B | £77,186 | £35.24 | Not published |
Source: NJC/2/26 Appendix A. Group and Area Managers have no nationally published overtime rate.
Which rate applies to you: development or competent
The Grey Book sets pay by role, by whether you are in the development or competent stage and, above Crew Manager, by job-size category A or B. A new wholetime recruit begins on development pay while working under supervision and being assessed against the role's functions. When every applicable function has been assessed as achieved, they receive the competent rate. Most firefighters are expected to demonstrate competence within three years of joining.
The national trainee rate no longer exists. NJC/3/25 removed it from 1 July 2025, and the employers' side explained the change would enable all services to recruit directly onto the development rate. A Welsh recruit in 2026 therefore starts on £31,539 rather than a lower trainee figure. The trainee firefighter pay guide explains what that removal changed.
Progression above firefighter is from Crew Manager upwards, where there are new development and competent points; Watch, Station, Group and Area Managers also have A and B competent bands. The pay progression guide covers those rules and how much each promotion is worth.
Free toolFirefighter pay calculatorWork out gross and net pay for your role and stage.Open the free pay calculator →Take-home pay in Wales
Income tax for Welsh taxpayers uses Welsh rates of income tax, which currently mirror the rates for England and Northern Ireland, so the same take-home arithmetic applies. The table uses the site's 2026/27 model: a 1257L tax code (with a C prefix on a Welsh payslip), the FPS 2015 employee contribution bands, no student loan, and no CPD, overtime or allowances. On that basis a competent firefighter's £40,358 becomes about £28,512.50 a year, or £2,376.04 a month.
The result comes from a pension contribution of £5,081.07 (12.59%), income tax of £4,541.39 and National Insurance of £2,223.04. A development firefighter on £31,539 takes home £23,429.54, or £1,952.46 a month, after a lower 11.09% contribution. Both are illustrations. Your own take-home depends on your actual contribution rate under the Welsh scheme, your tax code, whether you are paid monthly or four-weekly and any salary sacrifice.
For a fuller table across every role see firefighter take-home pay 2026. To check your own payslip against expected figures, use the payslip checker.
| Role and stage | Gross basic | Annual take-home | Monthly take-home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Firefighter, development | £31,539 | £23,429.54 | £1,952.46 |
| Firefighter, competent | £40,358 | £28,512.50 | £2,376.04 |
| Crew Manager, development | £42,892 | £30,081.76 | £2,506.81 |
| Crew Manager, competent | £44,742 | £31,227.43 | £2,602.29 |
| Watch Manager, Competent A | £46,980 | £32,049.61 | £2,670.80 |
| Watch Manager, Competent B | £50,034 | £33,904.25 | £2,825.35 |
| Station Manager, Competent B | £57,402 | £38,806.61 | £3,233.88 |
Illustration: 1257L code, no student loan, FPS 2015 contribution bands, no CPD, overtime or allowances. Welsh income tax rates are the same as England's for these bands.
On-call firefighter pay in Wales
On-call firefighters in Wales are paid under the retained duty system rules in the Grey Book rather than a salary. The annual retainer for full cover of at least 120 hours a week is 15% of the wholetime basic pay: £6,054 for a competent firefighter and £4,731 for a development firefighter. Lower availability can be paid at 5% (up to 30 hours), 7.5% (31 to 60), 10% (61 to 90) or 12.5% (91 to 119 hours). A 5% retainer for someone on the day-crewing duty system is £2,018 for a competent firefighter.
On top of the retainer, all work activity is paid at the basic hourly rate (£18.43 competent, £14.40 development), and every call-out attracts a disturbance payment of £5.31. A crew member is paid at least one hour for an emergency incident and two hours if they remain on duty beyond an hour and fifteen minutes. The Grey Book also says that existing local agreements that already exist outside it are unaffected by the retainer band wording, so your contract may differ.
As a worked example, a competent on-call firefighter with 10% availability (£4,036), 90 hours of activity a year (£1,658.70) and 50 call-outs (£265.50 disturbance) would earn £5,960.20 a year before tax. That is illustrative only. See on-call firefighter pay and the on-call pay calculator for your own figures.
| Availability band | % of wholetime pay | Development (£31,539) | Competent (£40,358) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 30 hours a week | 5% | £1,577 | £2,018 |
| 31 to 60 hours | 7.5% | £2,365 | £3,027 |
| 61 to 90 hours | 10% | £3,154 | £4,036 |
| 91 to 119 hours | 12.5% | £3,942 | £5,045 |
| Full cover, 120+ hours | 15% | £4,731 | £6,054 |
Rounded to the nearest pound. The full and day-crewing retainer figures match NJC/2/26 Appendix B; the intermediate bands are the Grey Book percentages applied to basic pay.
CPD, allowances and local terms
Continual Professional Development payments are set per fire authority in the NJC circulars and rose 3.8% on 1 July 2026. The FBU's 2026 settlement page reports authority amounts ranging from £400 to £1,346 a year across the UK. Which figure applies to a Welsh service is in NJC circular NJC/3/26; this guide does not quote it because the circular's by-authority table was not available to check. To qualify, a firefighter needs five years since achieving competence, and successful applicants are paid from 1 July each year.
Other payments, including additional responsibility allowances, are determined locally. The Grey Book says additional responsibility payments are temporary, non-pensionable and may be withdrawn with reasonable notice. Acting up is paid at the development rate of the higher role, or the competent rate if you have already shown competence in it. See firefighter allowances explained and acting-up pay.
Use the CPD payments page to understand how CPD lines appear on your payslip. If you are not sure whether an allowance on your payslip is pensionable, ask your pension administrator rather than assuming.
Pension in Wales
Welsh firefighters have their own firefighters' pension scheme regulations, separate from England's, and the contribution rate on your payslip depends on the scheme you are in and your pensionable pay. The site's take-home model uses the England FPS 2015 contribution bands for Wales as an approximation, so treat the pension line in the tables here as an estimate and replace it with the figure on your payslip.
The pension is a large part of the pay package. Contributions are deducted before income tax but not before National Insurance, so a £5,081 contribution reduces the net cost to a competent firefighter. The planned guide to the Welsh firefighter pension scheme covers scheme details, and the pension calculator models what a CARE pension might build.
If you are moving between England and Wales, your service history, scheme membership and accrued benefits need to be transferred or preserved correctly. The guide to transferring between fire services explains the pay and pension considerations.
Overtime, bank holidays and other extras
Overtime rules are national. Watch Manager and below are paid time and a half, or double time on a public holiday. A competent firefighter's overtime rate is £27.65 an hour and public holiday double time is £36.86. Pre-arranged overtime is voluntary and capped at 24 hours a month averaged over six months, while casual overtime after an incident is paid in 15-minute blocks after the first hour.
Recall to duty for a serious incident is paid for at least three hours at double time, which is £110.58 for a competent firefighter. Public holiday working also earns a day's leave in lieu for Station Manager and below who are not on the flexible duty system. The overtime rates guide and bank holiday pay guide show the detail, and the overtime calculator does the sums.
Station Managers and above can be on the flexible duty system, which pays a pensionable 20% supplement. See flexi duty allowance explained for the rules.
What to check on a Welsh payslip
Check that the annual basic pay equals the NJC figure for your role and stage from the date your service applied the July 2026 award. If your service has not yet paid the increase, ask when arrears will be paid. The award's effective date is 1 July 2026 regardless of when payroll processes it, so backdated pay is normally due; the back pay guide shows how to calculate it.
Then check the pension contribution rate, tax code, CPD line and any allowances. A monthly payslip for a competent firefighter should show £3,363.17 gross basic; a four-weekly one about £3,104.46, because the annual figure is divided into 12 or 13 periods. See how firefighters are paid and firefighter payslip explained.
For a personalised summary, the paid Personal Pay Report uses your inputs to produce a written breakdown of your pay, deductions and questions for payroll.
Frequently asked questions
How much do firefighters earn in Wales?
Welsh services use the NJC scale, so from 1 July 2026 a development firefighter earns £31,539 and a competent firefighter £40,358. Crew managers earn £42,892 to £44,742 and watch managers £45,711 to £50,034. CPD, allowances and overtime come on top.
Is firefighter pay in Wales the same as England?
The NJC basic pay scale is the same. South Wales FRS, for example, advertised competent pay at the national 2025 rate of £38,881 in May 2026. Differences arise in local allowances, CPD amounts, pay periods and the Welsh pension scheme regulations.
What is the starting salary for a firefighter in Wales?
New wholetime recruits start on the development rate, £31,539 from 1 July 2026. The separate trainee rate was removed from the national table on 1 July 2025, so services can recruit directly onto development pay. Check the advert for the date of the quoted salary.
Do Welsh firefighters pay the same income tax as England?
For Welsh taxpayers, Welsh rates of income tax currently match the rates for England, so take-home pay for the same salary is the same. Your tax code will carry a C prefix. Pension contribution rates depend on the Welsh scheme and your pensionable pay.
How much do on-call firefighters earn in Wales?
The full retainer is 15% of wholetime basic pay, £6,054 for a competent firefighter, with lower bands from 5% for less availability. Work is paid at £18.43 an hour and each call-out attracts a £5.31 disturbance payment. Total earnings depend on how many calls you attend.
Which fire services are there in Wales?
There are three: Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, North Wales Fire and Rescue Service and South Wales Fire and Rescue Service. Each recruits its own wholetime and on-call firefighters, so check the relevant service's vacancy for the current salary.
Primary sources
- NJC Circular NJC/2/26: pay award 2026 (rates from 1 July 2026)
- NJC Circular NJC/3/25: pay award 2025 (trainee rate deleted)
- NJC — Scheme of Conditions of Service (Grey Book), 7th edition, April 2025
- FBU — pay settlement 2026
- NFCC job listing — South Wales Fire and Rescue Service WDS firefighter transfer (May 2026)