IT IS notoriously difficult to compare nurses’ pay around the world, mainly because it is relative to the cost of living in each country. Nurses coming here from overseas know only too well that a salary can look highly attractive from afar, but is Jean Gray soon eaten up by the everyday necessities such as housing, taxes, food and fares. As we wait to see how much the government is prepared to invest in a new pay system for nurses, Nursing Standard has put together an international salary comparison, aided by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a team that specialises in calculating equivalent salaries for firms who are moving staff abroad. We took the CVs of three skilled NHS nurses and looked at what they could expect to earn - in real terms - in other developed countries: the USA, Germany and Australia. We discovered that nurses might attract salaries worth up to three times their UK income.