Data study · ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025
What the UK really earns
The average UK salary, measured properly, is the median: the pay of the person in the middle. As of April 2025 that figure is £39,039 a year for full-time employees. Half earn less; half earn more. The headlines you see quoting higher "average" numbers usually mean the mean, which a handful of very high earners pull upwards.
Median full-time
£39,039
the middle salary
Median, all employees
£32,890
including part-time
10th to 90th
£23,990 – £76,903
the bulk of pay
Where does your salary rank?
Enter your gross annual pay to see what share of UK full-time workers earn less than you, and how far above or below the median you sit. Nothing leaves your browser.
Use your full-time gross annual pay, before tax and any pension or student loan deductions. The comparison is against UK full-time employees only.
You earn more than
~50%
of UK full-time workers, on £39,039 a year. That is almost exactly the UK median of £39,039.
Want the take-home on this? See it after tax.
The shape of UK pay
Earnings are not evenly spread. The gap from the 10th to the 50th percentile is far smaller than the gap from the 50th to the 90th: pay accelerates as you climb. That long upper tail is exactly why the mean sits above the median.
Gross full-time pay by percentile
The coral bar is the median (50th percentile): half of full-time employees earn less, half earn more. The 90th percentile earns more than three times the 10th.
The full distribution, percentile by percentile
| Percentile | Gross annual pay | Per hour (37.5h week) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | £23,990 | £12.30 |
| 20th | £27,495 | £14.10 |
| 25th | £29,262 | £15.01 |
| 30th | £30,935 | £15.86 |
| 40th | £34,779 | £17.84 |
| 50th (median) | £39,039 | £20.02 |
| 60th | £44,203 | £22.67 |
| 70th | £50,115 | £25.70 |
| 75th | £54,009 | £27.70 |
| 80th | £59,083 | £30.30 |
| 90th | £76,903 | £39.44 |
Read it like this: a 70th-percentile salary of £50,115 means 70% of full-time employees earn less and 30% earn more.
Full-time versus all employees
There are two medians worth knowing, and they answer different questions. The full-time median of £39,039 is the right benchmark if you work full-time and want to know how your pay compares with others doing the same. The all-employee median of £32,890 includes part-time workers, so it is lower; it describes the typical pay packet across the whole workforce rather than the typical full-time wage. When a headline says "the average salary", it is worth checking which of these it means, because they are roughly £6,149 apart.
Methodology and sources
All figures come from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025 (ASHE), the Office for National Statistics' definitive earnings survey, drawn from a 1% sample of employee jobs taken from HMRC PAYE records. The reference period is April 2025; the 2025 release is provisional and was published in October 2025.
Salary figures are gross annual earnings (before tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan) for full-time employees on adult rates who have been in the same job for more than 12 months, from ASHE Table 1.7a. Hourly figures are derived assuming a 37.5-hour week, the ASHE median for full-time total paid hours. We lead with the median rather than the mean throughout, because the median is not distorted by a small number of very high earners and better reflects typical pay.
We refresh these numbers each autumn when the new ASHE release lands. Last verified against the official ONS dataset on 10 June 2026.
Common questions
- What is the average UK salary?
- The median full-time salary in the UK is £39,039 a year, based on the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025 (gross pay, April 2025). Half of full-time employees earn less than this and half earn more. Counting part-time workers as well, the median across all employees falls to £32,890, because part-time roles pull the figure down.
- What is the difference between median and mean salary?
- The median is the middle salary: line everyone up from lowest to highest paid and the median is the person in the middle. The mean is the total pay divided by the number of people. A small number of very high earners drag the mean well above the median, so the mean overstates what a typical person earns. For everyday comparisons the median is the honest number, which is why the ONS leads with it.
- Is £40,000 a good salary in the UK?
- £40,000 is just above the UK median full-time salary of £39,039, so it places you in roughly the upper half of full-time earners. Whether it feels comfortable depends heavily on where you live and your household: it stretches much further outside London and the South East, and a second household income changes the picture entirely. Use the ranking tool above to see exactly where any figure sits.
Turn a salary into real money
A gross salary is only half the story; what lands in your account is what matters. See the take-home on any figure, then work out what to do with it.