In this post, you’ll learn about the UK average salaries, what affects them, and their variations criteria.
One cannot simply refer to a single value as the average salary for the entirety of the UK population. This is because UK salaries vary across different locations, industries, and specific job roles.
Also, several factors affect your earnings, from sector to age, gender, education, experience, and others.
However, knowing the average salary for your proposed job in your geographic location will be very useful in salary negotiations. This is why this article will discuss the average UK salary while addressing how they differ according to the varying factors.
So, let’s get right to it.
According to the HMRC and Office of National Statistics (ONS) data from the start of 2022, the estimated average salary in the UK was £24,600.
Compared to the beginning of 2021, this shows over a 6% increase, but it is still significantly lower than the overall average salary of 2021 (£25,971).
However, with the start of 2022 being higher, the probability of the overall average salary exceeding that of 2021 is high.
It is also important to remember that pandemic disruptions and Government unemployment schemes caused an inflated growth that affected both the 2020 and 2021 data.
The mean salary in the UK can misrepresent the earning power of the entire population because an insignificant number of people earning a lot can affect the result. On the other hand, the median salary gives a more accurate representation of the average salary in the UK as it is less affected by a small number of high earners.
Plus, the Office of National Statistics prefers to use the median to measure the average earnings because it rebates the extremes at the different ends of the scale.
The median average salary is usually lower than the mean average; for example, the median average salary for all workers in the UK in 2021 is £25,971, while the mean average salary is £31,285.
So let’s take a look at some of the factors that affect the average salary value.
Your industry will affect your earning potential, as some jobs pay more than others. Outlined below are the highest paying industries in 2022, and their median monthly earnings for full-time employees, according to ONS.
It is also worth mentioning that the highest paid jobs in the UK belong to CEOs and senior officials who earn a median weekly salary of £3,514.
This is followed by legal professionals (£1,781 weekly), marketing and sales directors (£1,652), and brokers (£1,613).
As mentioned previously, average salary values differ by location. This section will discuss the average salary for prominent places in the UK and the highest paying jobs. So, let’s get right to it.
London, which is home to more than 8 million people, is the capital of England and the UK. Because of the high cost of living in this city, compared to others, the salaries are typically higher.
According to the ONS, the average weekly pay for the city of London as a whole was £870. Full-time workers earned £921 weekly while part-time workers earned £257. Comparing genders, male workers in London earn an average weekly salary of £1045 compared to female workers who make £728. Besides, the number also changes when we look at the gender and type of work.
Source: Office for National Statistics
The top-paying jobs in London are on par with those of the entirety of the UK.
They include Chief executive officers, lawyers, chief financial officers, marketing directors, surgeons, college professors, judges, bank managers, pilots, orthodontists, and others.
According to the Office of National Statistics, the average weekly salary for all workers in Leeds is £446; £520 for full-time workers and £176 for part-time workers. The average salary in this city has seen a 0.3% increase every year, despite the national annual salary decrease.
Also, male workers earn a weekly average salary of £525, with male full-time workers making £569 and male part-time workers making £153.
Source: Office of National Statistics
On the other hand, female workers only surpassed their male counterparts in the part-time section earning £182 weekly. Besides, female full-time workers make an average of £452 weekly. The top-paying jobs in this city are quite different from that in the UK.
Some top-paying jobs include software developer, technical architect, scrum master, data architect, UI/UX designer, asset manager, sales manager, head of product, lawyer, and others.
According to the ONS, the average salary per week in Glasgow city is £449; £537 for full-time workers and £181 for part-time workers.
Like in the previous cities we discussed, there is a gender pay gap, with the average weekly salary for male workers being $537 and £382 for female workers. Full-time male workers earn $578, which is more than the £480 earned by female full-time workers.
Besides, only part-time female workers in Glasgow had a higher average salary than their male counterparts.
Source: Office of National Statistics
Some top-paying industries in Glasgow include Engineering, Pharmaceuticals, Data, Healthcare, Finance Strategy, and Project Management.
On the other hand, the highest paid jobs in this city include architect, product designer, enterprise architect, security consultant, solutions architect, test manager, and data scientist.
Birmingham is one of the fastest-growing cities in the UK, and you can find high-paying jobs in this city regardless of your education or qualifications.
According to the ONS, the average weekly salary in the city of Birmingham is £447, with full-time workers earning £539 and part-time workers earning £165. Besides, the average salary for entry-level positions is approximately £25,000 per year.
The top-paid job in Birmingham is that of a surgeon, who can earn an average salary of about £310,000 annually.
This is followed by a Supreme Court judge (£253,000), chief executive officer (£189,000), finance director (£176,000), and others.
Plus, the highest paying industries in this city include healthcare, legal, real estate, business administration, and engineering.
In Cambridge, consultants and sales representatives are a few of the highest-paid, with a median average salary of about £290,000.
Other top-paying jobs in this city include chief executive officer, chief operating officer, psychiatrists, chief medical officer, finance director, software developer, social worker, and data scientist.
The ONS reported that the average salary per week for all workers in Cambridge is £503, with male workers earning an average of £583 and female workers earning £454.
Additionally, full-time workers earn a weekly average salary of £599 compared to £211 for part-time workers.
The average weekly salary in the city of Edinburgh is £481, with full-time workers making an average of £575 and part-time workers making £186. The male workers make an average of £547 compared to the £414 that the female workers make.
On the other hand, full-time male and female workers make £601 and £537 respectively.
The highest paying jobs in the city of Edinburgh include Business architect (£62,000), software developer (£58,800), financial strategy officer (£54,000), compliance officer (£55,000), technical architect (£58,000), executive management (£63,000), and data scientist (£59,800).
According to the ONS, the average weekly salary for all workers in Mid Sussex is £418, with full-time workers making £538 and part-time workers making £179. Male workers make £499 weekly (full-time male workers make £577), and female workers make a weekly average of £359 (full-time female workers make £471 while part-time workers make £193).
Source: Office of National Statistics
The average weekly salary in Rotherham is £371, with full-time workers making £479 and part-time workers making £167. Comparing gender, the pay gap between male and female workers is high. We have seen this pattern in all locations we have discussed.
All male workers (both full-time and part-time) make an average weekly salary of £475 compared to the female workers who make £269.
The Office for National Statistics reported that the average salary for all workers in Wealden per week is £321, with £442 made by male workers and £253 by female workers.
Full-time workers earn a weekly average of £443 while their part-time counterparts earn an average of £150. Besides, the average salary values change when we compare full-time and part-time male and female workers.
Copeland is one of the best-paid districts for people to work in. The average salary for all workers in this district per week is £321, with full-time workers earning £443 and part-time workers earning £150.
Besides, male workers in Copeland earn an average of £442 compared to their female counterparts, who earn an average of £253.