Percentage or UDA rate? Negotiating your associate numbers

Associate pay comes in flavours: a percentage of gross fees (common in private and mixed practices), a rate per UDA (common for NHS work), or blends of both. The headline number tells you little on its own.

How to compare offers

• Model your realistic year. Sessions × realistic daily gross (or UDAs) × the rate — using achievable clinical output for that practice's patient base, not the advert's optimism. Ask what the current associates actually generate.
• Check the lab split. Whether lab fees are deducted before or after your percentage bites changes your effective rate — on a crown-and-bridge-heavy book, materially.
• Read the clawback clause. On NHS work: if the practice under-delivers or your UDAs are short, what happens to money already paid? Personal clawback liability is a real term in real contracts.
• Look for what's provided. Nursing support, materials quality, equipment, marketing that fills your book — a slightly lower rate in a full, well-run diary beats a headline rate in an empty one.
• Confirm superannuation handling on NHS earnings: deducted correctly on sensible estimates, reconciled annually.

Before you sign anything, put the offer's numbers through a realistic annual model — it takes an hour and it's the highest-paid hour of your year. We do this with associate clients as a matter of course, alongside the basics in the associate tax guide.