What is the average salary in the UK?
There are two figures you will often see called the UK average salary. The £39,039 median is the middle of the full-time pay range. The full-time average is about £48,500. Both can be right, but they answer different questions.
The full-time average is about £48,500. It is higher because very high salaries pull the average up. The £32,890 all-employee median is lower because it also includes part-time jobs.
For your own pay, start with the £39,039 median, then compare by age, region and take-home pay. If you want the midpoint explained on its own, see the median salary UK guide.
Average salary UK: key figures for 2026
There isn't one single "average UK salary" - there are several, and they each measure something slightly different. The table below shows the main ones. Short version: use the full-time median (£39,039) if you're comparing a full-time salary; use the all-employee median (£32,890) if you want to include the whole workforce. And don't be thrown off by the mean - it always runs higher because a small number of people earn very large salaries, pulling the overall figure up.
| Measure | Latest figure | Best used for |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time median salary | £39,039 | The typical full-time worker benchmark |
| Full-time mean (average) salary | About £48,500 | Showing how high earners push the overall figure up |
| All-employee median salary | £32,890 | The whole employee market, including part-time roles |
| Part-time median salary | £14,713 | Part-time employee pay, not directly comparable with full-time annual pay |
| All-employee mean (average) salary | £40,269 | A broader average across all employees |
| Median hourly pay | £18.00 | Comparing hourly-paid work with salaried roles |
Bottom line: if you're asking "is my full-time salary above average?", £39,039 is your number. If you want to see where you sit across the whole workforce - part-time included - use £32,890 instead.
Want to compare the benchmark with real jobs? Browse ONS pay data for all 412 UK occupations, ranked by median and average full-time pay.
Average salary by age in the UK
Pay doesn't stand still - it tends to grow through your twenties and thirties as you gain experience, take on more responsibility and switch roles for better money. That's why comparing yourself to a single national figure can be misleading. Someone earning £28,000 at 24 is doing well relative to their peers; the same salary at 44 tells a very different story.
| Age group | Median annual salary | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| 18–21 | £13,069 | Mostly entry-level, apprenticeships, part-time and early work |
| 22–29 | £29,855 | Early-career benchmark after education or first few roles |
| 30–39 | £36,000 | Established-career benchmark |
| 40–49 | £37,734 | Highest median age band in the latest data |
| 50–59 | £34,835 | Often flatter pay growth, role changes or fewer hours for some workers |
| 60+ | £26,750 | Includes more part-time, semi-retired and reduced-hours work |
To put it in real terms: a £40,000 salary at 25 isn't just above the national full-time median - it's well above the typical wage for your age group. The same salary at 45 is still solid, but it sits much closer to the peak-earning bands, so the comparison looks quite different. Age context matters.
Average salary by region
Location changes the picture a lot. This table uses the median for all employees, so it includes both full-time and part-time jobs. That is why London shows £39,778 here. Our London salary page uses a different figure for full-time jobs based in London: about £49,826 a year. Both figures are useful, but they describe different groups of workers.
| Region | Median for all employees | Quick context |
|---|---|---|
| London | £39,778 | Highest figure in this all-employee table; full-time London jobs use a higher benchmark |
| South East | £35,215 | Above-average pay, especially around commuter towns |
| East | £34,104 | Above the UK all-employee median |
| Scotland | £33,061 | Sits above most regions outside southern England |
| South West | £31,432 | Close to the regional middle of the pack |
| West Midlands | £31,345 | Very close to the North West and Northern Ireland |
| North West | £31,330 | Near the UK regional middle |
| Northern Ireland | £31,252 | Similar to several English regions |
| Wales | £30,732 | Below the UK all-employee median |
| East Midlands | £30,690 | Below the UK all-employee median |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | £30,682 | Below the UK all-employee median |
| North East | £29,584 | Lowest regional median in this dataset |
Use the national figure as a starting point, then compare it with the regional figure for your area and your monthly take-home. If you work full time in London, use the London salary page for the full-time benchmark.
Average salary before and after tax
This is where the numbers get real. Every salary figure from the ONS is gross - meaning it's before Income Tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan repayments come off. The number on your contract and the money that arrives in your account can look very different, and for most people the gap is significant.
The table below shows what some common salary benchmarks actually look like in your pocket, based on 2026/27 England, Wales and Northern Ireland PAYE rates. These examples don't include pension or student loan deductions, so your real take-home may be a bit lower. If you are benchmarking the lower end of the pay scale, compare these figures with the UK minimum wage 2026 annual salary and take-home pay.
| Gross salary | Approx. annual take-home | Approx. monthly take-home | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | £21,520 | £1,793 | Common early-career comparison point |
| £32,890 | £27,200 | £2,267 | All-employee median |
| £39,039 | £31,628 | £2,636 | Full-time median |
| £48,500 | £38,440 | £3,203 | Approximate full-time mean |
| £60,000 | £45,357 | £3,780 | Higher earner, partly in higher-rate tax |
Worth noting: a £5,000 difference in gross salary doesn't mean a £5,000 difference in take-home. Tax and NI eat into each additional pound you earn, which is why the calculator above is useful if you have pension contributions, a student loan, a Scottish tax code or a bonus to account for - those details shift your monthly number more than most people expect.
Average vs median: which salary figure should you use?
The median is the middle salary. Put everyone in order from lowest paid to highest paid and the median is the point in the middle. That is why it is usually the better number for comparing your own pay.
The average, also called the mean, adds all salaries together and divides by the number of workers. A smaller number of very high salaries pull this figure up. That is why the full-time average is about £48,500 while the median is £39,039.
For questions such as "is my salary good?" or "where do I sit?", start with the median. Use the average when you want the overall average pay across the full group.
Is £40,000 a good salary in the UK?
Yes, £40,000 is above the UK full-time median of £39,039, so you're ahead of the midpoint for full-time workers. But "good" is always relative to a few other things: your age, where you live, and what that salary actually looks like after tax.
If you are in your twenties, £40,000 is well above the 22–29 median of £29,855. In your forties, it sits much closer to the higher earning age bands. London needs extra care: the all-employee median is £39,778, while the median for full-time jobs based in London is about £49,826. A £40,000 salary can therefore look very different depending on who you compare it with and what you pay for rent and travel.
A quick sense-check: does your salary beat the national median, the median for your age group, and the median for your region? If it clears all three, it's a genuinely strong salary by most measures. If it only clears one or two, the answer gets more nuanced - and take-home pay is usually the most honest place to start.
What salary puts you in the top 10% in the UK?
It's one of the most searched salary questions, and the answer - based on ONS employee earnings data - is around £69,381. Earn above that, and you're in the top tenth of employees by pay.
One thing worth knowing: ONS employee salary data and HMRC taxpayer-income data aren't the same thing and shouldn't be mixed. ONS covers employment earnings. HMRC captures a broader income picture - including dividends and rental income - which is why its percentile thresholds can look different. If you see conflicting figures quoted elsewhere, that's usually the reason.
We've kept this page focused on employee salary benchmarks. If you want to dig into exactly where you rank, the dedicated guides go into much more detail: top 10%, top 5% and top 1%.
What counts as a middle-class income in the UK?
"Middle class" isn't a salary band - it never has been. It's a label that tends to bundle together income, occupation, education, homeownership, family background and sometimes just the way you speak. Which makes it pretty useless as a financial benchmark.
If you're trying to get a sense of where you sit financially, the full-time median of £39,039 is a much cleaner anchor. Earning above it means your salary is above the middle of the full-time pay range - that's a concrete, measurable fact. It doesn't tell you anything definitive about wealth, security or lifestyle, but it's a real data point rather than a vague social category.
The other thing worth remembering: household income often matters more than individual salary. Two people each earning £32,000 can genuinely live better than one person on £40,000, depending on costs, dependants and where they live. The single number on your payslip only tells part of the story.
Where these salary figures come from
The salary data on this page comes from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) - the UK's most comprehensive survey of employee pay. It's based on PAYE records and covers millions of jobs, which makes it the standard source for salary benchmarks. The latest available data is from the April 2025 ASHE release. When this page refers to "2026", that refers to the tax-year assumptions used in the calculator - the underlying salary figures are from that 2025 ONS release.
A few things worth knowing about how we use the data:
- Salary figures: ONS ASHE 2025 provisional data for employee earnings.
- Tax examples: 2026/27 Income Tax and employee National Insurance rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Gross vs net: all ONS figures are before-tax pay; our take-home estimates deduct Income Tax and employee NI only, unless you add pension or student loan via the calculator.
- Dataset note: ONS employee salary data and HMRC taxpayer-income percentiles aren't interchangeable - they cover different populations and income types, so we keep them separate.
Use this page for employee salary benchmarks and take-home estimates. For high-income percentile comparisons - top 10%, 5%, 1% - the dedicated guides go deeper on how the data works.