In 2024 men aged between 50 and 59 were the highest full-time earners in the United Kingdom among different gender and age groups, with men of different ages consistently earning more than women.

In 2023, full-time workers in their 40s had the highest average annual salary in the United Kingdom, earning on average around 39,491 British pounds a year, compared with 20,437 for people aged between 18 and 21.

In 2024, men in the United Kingdom had a higher average hourly full-time salary than women across most age groups, except for 16 to 17 when women had slightly higher earnings, and among those aged between 18 and 21, earnings were almost the same.

In the United Kingdom, the average annual earnings of graduates was higher at almost all ages in 2017, with graduates aged 46 the highest earners overall. From the ages of 21 to 23, those with an apprenticeship were the top earners, however, from the age of 24 onwards, graduates became the top earners. Each education level, despite some fluctuations, follows the same rough trend arc of growth and decline in earnings depending on age.

Every year between 2013 and 2021, employees from the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest average hourly pay out of all ethnic groups.

Men in their 40s, who work in full-time jobs earned an average of 876.3 British pounds a week in the United Kingdom in 2024, compared with women in this age group who earned an average of 750.9 pounds a week. This was the highest earning age group for both genders.

According to a 2024 survey, the general correlation between age and salary in the United Kingdom's hospitality industry is that the older a worker is, the higher their salary is. One exception is those aged between 55 and 64 years old, who earned slightly less than those aged between 45 and 54 years old. In both 2023 and 2024, ** to 54-year-olds earned the highest annual salaries, with ****** British pounds and ****** British pounds respectively.

In 2025, it is predicted that average earnings in the United Kingdom will increase by *** percent, compared with a growth rate of *** percent in 2024, and *** percent in 2023, the fastest average earnings growth in this time period. By contrast, average earnings did not grow at all in 2020, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earnings vs inflation Although earnings grew at their fastest pace between 2021 and 2023 in this provided time period, this was offset by the period of very high inflation that occurred alongside it. This reached a peak of **** percent in October 2022, with inflation only reaching the typical target rate of *** percent in May 2024. Despite strong wage growth, the average UK worker saw their earnings fall relative to inflation between November 2021 and May 2023. As of January 2024, weekly wages in the UK were still growing faster than inflation, at *** percent for regular pay and *** percent for pay including bonuses. Full-time earnings reach over ****** GBP in 2024 Full-time employees in the United Kingdom earned an average annual salary of ****** British pounds in 2024, compared with just over ****** in the previous year. As of this year, men reported higher earnings than women did, with the UK reporting a gender pay gap of **** percent for 2024, compared with **** percent in 1997. Workers in their 40s had the highest average earnings by age group, at approximately ****** for men, and ****** for women. Although men earned more than women in all age groups, this gap was smallest among workers aged 18 to 21.

In the 3 years to March 2021, black households were most likely out of all ethnic groups to have a weekly income of under £600.

In 2023, the highest average amount of disposable income for any age group occurred in the 35 to 44-year-old group, while the age group with the lowest average disposable income were those aged 85 and over.

The highest earning age group for full-time workers in the United Kingdom in 2024 were those aged between 40 and 49, with an average hourly salary of 21.44 British pounds an hour. By contrast, workers that were 16 to 17 earned just 8.59 pounds an hour, and were the lowest earning age group.

Wages in the United Kingdom increased 5 percent in May of 2025 over the same month in the previous year. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United Kingdom Average Weekly Earnings Growth - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

The median annual earnings for full-time employees in the United Kingdom was approximately 37,430 British pounds in 2024, compared with 34,963 pounds in the previous year. At the start of the provided time period, in 1999, the average full-time salary in the UK was 17,803 pounds per year, with median earnings exceeding 20,000 pounds per year in 2002, and 30,000 by 2019. Wages continue to grow faster than inflation in 2025 Between November 2021 and July 2023 inflation was higher than wage growth in the UK, with wages still outpacing inflation as of March 2025. At the peak of the recent wave of high inflation in October 2022, the CPI inflation rate reached a 41-year-high of 11.1 percent, wages were growing much slower at 6.1 percent. Since that peak, inflation remained persistently high for several months, only dropping below double figures in April 2023, when inflation was 8.7 percent, down from 10.1 percent in the previous month. For 2023 as a whole, the average annual rate of inflation was 7.3 percent but fell to 2.5 percent in 2024, but is forecast to increase to 3.2 percent in 2025. Highest and lowest-paid occupations As of 2023, the highest-paid occupation in the UK was that of Chief Executives and Senior Officials, who had an average weekly pay of approximately, 1,576 pounds. By contrast, the lowest-paid occupation that year was that of retail cashiers, and check-out operators, who earned approximately 383 pounds a week. For industry sectors as a whole, people who worked full-time in the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector had the highest average earnings, at 955 pounds a week, compared with 505 pounds a week in the accommodation and food services sector, the lowest average earnings in 2023.

Between April 2008 and March 2024, households from the Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups were the most likely to live in low income out of all ethnic groups, before and after housing costs.

Pensioners' Incomes (PI) contains estimates of the levels, sources and distribution of pensioners' incomes. It also examines the position of single pensioners and pensioner couples, including any dependent children, within the income distribution of the population as a whole. This differs from Households Below Average Income (HBAI) (see SNs 5828 and 7196), where analysis is on a household basis, and includes the income of adults not in the pensioner unit but living in the same household. The PI undertakes a few extra steps beyond the FRS and HBAI data to derive pension income variables.

The PI series is a key source of information used to inform Government thinking on relevant policies and related programmes and projects. Researchers and analysts outside the government use statistics and data to examine topics such as ageing, the distributional impacts of fiscal policies, and pensioner groups' income profiles. The PI estimates are usually based on a sample of around 7,000 adults over State Pension age, who reside in private households in the United Kingdom, taken from the Family Resources Survey (FRS).

The gov.uk Pensioners' Incomes Statistics webpage contains annual reports, accompanying tables, research, and technical papers.

PI data are also available from 1994/95 onwards via the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Stat-Xplore online tool.

Secure Access PI data

The Secure Access version of the PI series (SN 9257) is available from 2007/08 onwards, whereas the standard End User Licence (EUL) data (SN 8503) are available from 2008/09. Unlike the EUL versions, the ages of the head of household and spouse have not been top-coded at 80 years in the Secure Access version. Prospective users of the Secure Access version must fulfil additional requirements beyond those associated with the EUL datasets. The Secure Access version of FRS is held under SN 9256, and the Secure Access version of HBAI is available under SN 7196.

Latest edition information

For the 7th edition (April 2025), data and documentation for 2023/24 were added to the study.

Between 2018 and 2022, people in households in the ‘other’, Asian and black ethnic groups were the most likely to be in persistent low income, both before and after housing costs, out of all ethnic groups.

In 2023, full-time workers in the United Kingdom in their 40s had the highest median weekly earnings at ***** British pounds per week, while those aged 16 to 17 had the lowest weekly earnings, at ***** pounds per week.

The median annual earnings in the United Kingdom was 37,430 British pounds per year in 2024. Annual earnings varied significantly by region, ranging from 47,455 pounds in London to 32,960 pounds in the North East. Along with London, two other areas of the UK had median annual earnings above the UK average; South East England, and Scotland, at 39,038 pounds and 38,315 pounds respectively. Regional Inequality in the UK Various other indicators highlight the degree of regional inequality in the UK, especially between London and the rest of the country. Productivity in London, as measured by output per hour, was 26.2 percent higher than the UK average. By comparison, every other UK region, except the South East, fell below the UK average for productivity. In gross domestic product per head, London was also an outlier. The average GDP per head in the UK was just over 37,000 pounds in 2023, but for London it was almost 64,000 pounds. Again, the South East's GDP per head was slightly above the UK average, with every other region below it. Within London itself, there is also a great degree of inequality. In 2023, for example, the average earnings in Kensington and Chelsea were 964 pounds per week, compared with 675 pounds in Barking and Dagenham. Wages continue to grow in 2025 In March 2025, weekly wages in the UK were growing by around 5.6 percent, or 1.8 percent when adjusted for inflation. For almost two years, wages have grown faster than inflation after a long period where prices were rising faster than wages between 2021 and 2023. This was due to a sustained period of high inflation in the UK, which peaked in October 2022 at 11.1 percent. Although inflation started to slow the following month, it wasn't until June 2023 that wages started to outpace inflation. By this point, the damage caused by high energy and food inflation had led to the the worst Cost of Living Crisis in the UK for a generation.