In April 2025, the UK minimum wage for adults over the age of 21 in will be 12.21 pounds per hour. For the 2025/26 financial year, there will be four minimum wage categories, three of which are based on age and one for apprentice workers. Apprentices, and workers under the age of 18 will have a minimum wage of 7.55 pounds an hour, increasing to ten pounds for those aged 18 to 20. When the minimum wage was first introduced in 1999, there were just two age categories; 18 to 21, and 22 and over. This increased to three categories in 2004, four in 2010, and five between 2016 and 2023, before being reduced down to four in the most recent year. The living wage The living wage is an alternative minimum wage amount that employers in the UK can voluntarily pay their employees. It is calculated independently of the legal minimum wage and results in a higher value figure. In 2023/24, for example, the living wage was twelve pounds an hour for the UK as a whole and 13.15 for workers in London, where the cost of living is typically higher. This living wage is different from what the UK government has named the national living wage, which was 10.42 in the same financial year. Between 2011/12 and 2023/24, the living wage has increased by 4.80 pounds, while the London living wage has grown by 4.85 pounds. Wage growth cancelled-out by high inflation 2021-2023 For a long period between the middle of 2021 and late 2023, average wage growth in the UK was unable to keep up with record inflation levels, resulting in the biggest fall in disposable income since 1956. Although the UK government attempted to mitigate the impact of falling living standards through a series of cost of living payments, the situation has still been very difficult for households. After peaking at 11.1 percent in October 2022, the UK's inflation rate remained in double figures until March 2023, and did not fall to the preferred rate of two percent until May 2024. As of November 2024, regular weekly pay in the UK was growing by 5.6 percent in nominal terms, and 2.5 percent when adjusted for inflation.

This statistic displays the national minimum wage and national living wage per hour as of October 2018, with forecasts for 2019 through to 2023. In 2018, there was a difference of ** pence per hour between the hourly national minimum and national living wage. This gap was expected to grow to ** pence per hour by 2023.

The voluntarily paid living wage in the United Kingdom for 2024/25 is 12.6 pounds per hour, with this rising to 13.85 pounds per hour for workers in London. For the same year the legal minimum wage for those over the age of 21 was 11.44 pounds per hour.

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.

The median hourly earnings for full-time employees in the United Kingdom was 18.72 British pounds in 2024, compared with 17.48 pounds in the previous year. At the start of this provided time period, in 1997, the average hourly wage in the UK was 7.92 pounds per hour, rising to more than ten pounds per hour by 2003, and above 15 pounds per hour by 2020. Minimum and living wage in the UK In the United Kingdom, employers are expected to pay their employees a minimum wage that is determined by how old they are. Under 18s for example, had a minimum wage of 5.28 British pounds in 2023, with the figure increasing to 7.49 pounds those aged 18 to 20, 10.18 for 21 to 22 year old's, and 10.42 for those aged 23 and over. There is also a voluntarily paid living Wage that employers can choose to pay their workers. For the 2023/24 financial year this was twelve pounds an hour, rising to 13.15 pounds an hour for workers based in London. Icelandic the highest earners in Europe Iceland had the highest average annual wage in the Europe in 2022 at around 79,500 U.S dollars. This was followed by Luxembourg at 78,300 dollars, Switzerland at 72,990 and Belgium at 64,850 dollars. The United Kingdom’s average annual wage amounted to around 53,985 U.S dollars in the same year. In this year, the country with the lowest annual salary in Europe was Greece, at 25,980 pounds per year.

Annual estimates of paid hours worked and earnings for UK employees by sex, and full-time and part-time, by home-based region to local and unitary authority level.

Wages for regular pay in the United Kingdom grew by approximately 5.2 percent in April 2025, although when adjusted for inflation, wages for regular pay only grew in real terms by 1.4 percent. Twenty months of inflation outpacing wages Between November 2021 and June 2023 inflation was higher than wage growth in the UK, resulting in falling real terms earnings throughout this 20-month period. While UK inflation peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022, it was not until April 2023 that it fell below double figures, and not until May 2024 that it reached the Bank of England's target of two percent. Forecasts from the Autumn 2024 budget predict that the annual UK inflation will for 2024 will be 2.5 percent, down from 7.3 percent in 2023 and 9.1 percent in 2022. Due to high inflation, the UK's minimum wage also rose quite significantly during this period, with the "main" rate increasing from 8.91 pounds per hour in 2021 to 12.21 pounds per hour in 2025. Average earnings and gender pay gap For full-time workers in the United Kingdom, the median average annual earnings was 37,430 British pounds in 2024, compared with 34,663 pounds in 2023. In London, average earnings were significantly higher than the rest of the country, at 47,455 pounds. Just two other areas of the United Kingdom, the South East and Scotland, had annual salaries above the UK average. North East England had the lowest average salary, at 32,960 pounds. As of 2024, the gender pay gap for median gross hourly earnings in the UK was 13.1 percent for all workers, falling to seven percent for full-time workers and -3 percent for part-time workers. Compared with 1997, when the gender pay gap was 27.5 percent for all workers, there has been a degree of progress, although, at current trends, it will be some time before the gap is closed entirely.

Wages in the United Kingdom decreased to 720 GBP/Week in April from 723 GBP/Week in March of 2025. This dataset provides - United Kingdom Average Weekly Wages - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Wages in the United Kingdom increased 5.30 percent in April 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.

In the three months to April 2025, average weekly earnings in the United Kingdom grew by 5.2 percent, while pay including bonuses grew by 5.3 percent, when compared with the same period leading to April 2024. In the same month, the inflation rate for the Consumer Price Index was 3.5 percent, indicating that wages were rising faster than prices that month. Average salaries in the UK In 2024, the average salary for full-time workers in the UK was 37,430 British pounds a year, up from 34,963 in the previous year. In London, the average annual salary was far higher than the rest of the country, at 47,455 pounds per year, compared with just 32,960 in North East England. There also still exists a noticeable gender pay gap in the UK, which was seven percent for full-time workers in 2024, down from 7.5 percent in 2023. Lastly, the monthly earnings of the top one percent in the UK was 15,887 pounds as of November 2024, far higher than even that of the average for the top five percent, who earned 7,641 pounds per month, while pay for the lowest 10 percent of earners was just 805 pounds per month. Waves of industrial action in the UK One of the main consequences of high inflation and low wage growth throughout 2022 and 2023 was an increase in industrial action in the UK. In December 2022, for example, there were approximately 830,000 working days lost due to labor disputes. Throughout this month, workers across various industry sectors were involved in industrial disputes, such as nurses, train drivers, and driving instructors. Many of the workers who took part in strikes were part of the UK's public sector, which saw far weaker wage growth than that of the private sector throughout 2022. Widespread industrial action continued into 2023, with approximately 303,000 workers involved in industrial disputes in March 2023. There was far less industrial action by 2024, however, due to settlements in many of the disputes, although some are ongoing as of 2025.

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.

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.

This dataset provides counts of persons in the United Kingdom for 2018 and 2021 aged 16-64 years in the following categories: i) economically inactive (currently not working and either not searching or not available for work); ii) have a long-term health condition; iii) have a long-term health condition that limits the kind or amount of work they can do; iv) were born in the EU (excluding Ireland); and v) were born outside the EU.

These categories are pertinent in understanding the impact of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic on economic inactivity and labour shortages, which rose sharply over the period covered by the dataset.

The dataset is novel because it provides a geographical disaggregation for 179 NUTS3 regions across the UK. The dataset allows the geographically uneven impacts of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic on local labour markets to be investigated.

The Coronavirus pandemic has led to increases in retirement and long-term sickness, and Brexit and the pandemic together have led to a reduction in the number of EU workers in the UK. Together, these changes amount to a large reduction in the size of the workforce, which is the primary reason for difficulties faced by employers in most sectors recruiting staff since the ending of 'lockdown', as well as issue of pay and conditions and their geographical and social inequalities.

Little is known about the uneven geography across the UK in these sources of reductions in the workforce in driving the sharpest rises in job vacancies in rural areas and some London boroughs, precisely the areas most dependent on foreign labour. This information is important in designing policies to effectively address "Levelling Up" the economic fortunes of different parts of the UK, with some places short of workers, at least in the short term; and others short of jobs, in particular well-paid jobs.

The UK Government has promised a transformation to a high-wage economy following Brexit, predicated on the view that reduced labour supply will stimulate investment and innovation to raise productivity, and that the UK has become locked-in to a low-cost economic model dependent on cheap international labour. The research will produce new datasets as the latest evidence becomes available, including the 2021 Census of Population, analysis and insights to assess this claim and its geography, by examining links between local changes to local labour demand, supply, wages, productivity and unemployment.

More generally, the research will better understand the impact of Brexit and the pandemic on local labour markets and local economies in different parts of the UK, to inform planning for future economic resilience to 'shocks', and to assess the effectiveness of the UK new immigration policy in meeting labour demand and skills shortages in all parts of the UK.

In the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group in 2021, 16.2% of workers were self-employed, which is the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups.

This statistic illustrates the minimum and maximum annual salary brackets for commercial, financial or business analysts, working on a permanent basis, in the commerce and industry sector in London (United Kingdom) as of 2017, listed for the level of qualification and years of experience. The source states that salary ranges are approximate guides only and relate to base salaries (excluding superannuation, bonuses, incentive schemes and stock options). It can be seen that at that time, newly qualified commercial/ financial/ business analysts earned between 45 thousand and 55 thousand British pounds per annum, whereas highly qualified specialists, with six years experience and more, earned between 65 thousand and 85 thousand British pounds per year.

This statistic illustrates the minimum and maximum annual salary brackets for group financial/ business analysts, working on a permanent basis, in the commerce and industry sector in London (United Kingdom) as of 2018, listed for the level of qualification and years of experience. The source stated that salary ranges were approximate guides only and related to base salaries (excluding superannuation, bonuses, incentive schemes and stock options). It can be seen that at that time, newly qualified group business analysts earned between 45 thousand and 55 thousand British pounds per annum, whereas highly qualified specialists, with six years experience and more, earned between 65 thousand and 80 thousand British pounds per year.

This statistic presents the gross annual earnings (minimum and maximum brackets) of investment banking specialists working in London (United Kingdom) as of January 2018, listed by years of post-qualification experience. As of that time, investment banking specialists with up to one year working experience earned between 65 and 80 thousand British pounds (GBP) per annum. Highly experienced specialists (work experience of at least ten years) earned at the minimum 140 thousand GBP yearly.