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.

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.

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 2024 Between November 2021 and July 2023 inflation was higher than wage growth in the UK, with wages still outpacing inflation as of April 2024. 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 is forecast to fall to 2.2 percent in 2024, and 1.5 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.

Wages in the United Kingdom grew by approximately 5.9 percent in January 2025, although when adjusted for inflation, wages only grew in real terms by 2.1 percent. When bonus pay is included in wage growth calculations, wages grew by 5.8 percent in nominal terms, and by 2.2 percent in real terms. 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 for 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.

In the three months to December 2024, average weekly earnings in the United Kingdom grew by 5.9 percent, while pay including bonuses also grew by six percent, when compared with the same period in 2023. In the same month, the inflation rate for the Consumer Price Index was 2.5 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.

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.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is an instrument aimed at collecting timely and comparable cross-sectional and longitudinal multidimensional microdata on income, poverty and social exclusion. It is the European Union (EU) reference source for comparative statistics on income distribution and social exclusion at European level, particularly in the context of the 'Programme of Community action to encourage cooperation between Member States to combat social exclusion' and for producing structural indicators on social cohesion for the annual spring report to the European Council.

The EU-SILC instrument aims to provide two types of data: cross-sectional data pertaining to a given time or a certain time period with variables on income, poverty, social exclusion and other living conditions, and longitudinal data pertaining to individual-level changes over time, observed periodically over, typically, a four years period. Further information may be found on the EU-SILC webpage.

Users should note that only the cross-sectional data are currently available from the UK Data Archive, and these data only cover UK. The Great Britain component of the EU-SILC dataset was collected by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of the General Lifestyle Survey (GLF) (held at the Archive under Special Licence access conditions - see GN 33403). Following the closure of the GLF in 2012 the cross-sectional data have been collected via the Family Resources Survey (FRS) (held at the Archive under GN 33283). The FRS also provides the first wave of the EU-SILC longitudinal element, also carried out by ONS. The Northern Ireland component is collected by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) as part of the Living Conditions Survey (LCS) (not currently held at the Archive). The EU-SILC dataset has been produced in accordance with EU regulations under guidance from Eurostat. In addition, every year a European Commission regulation describing the list of secondary target variables (annual modules) is published (see Main Topics section for details).

The accompanying documentation for EU-SILC comprises: a Guidelines document that describes the survey, the variables including the module and recommendations given to the EU member states for data collection; and a document detailing the differences between the data collected and that held in Eurostat's User Database (UDB) (as described in the guidelines) for all member states, including the already established issues or particularities for the UK.


Main Topics:
The data contains interview survey data for adults aged 16 years and over, plus basic demographic information for children in the register files. These variables cover topics such as:

• basic personal and household data
• child care
• dwelling type, tenure status and housing conditions
• housing costs and amenities
• housing and non-housing related arrears
• non-monetary household deprivation indicators
• physical and social environment
• household and personal level income
• education
• health and access to healthcare
• labour information

Additionally, each year there is an annual module. The modules for 2008 and 2009 are:

• 2008: over-indebtedness and financial exclusion
• 2009: material deprivation

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Fair Treatment at Work Survey is Britain's first large-scale official survey of employees' experience of unfair treatment, perceived discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace. The survey was commissioned by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) which in June 2009 merged with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) to form the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The new survey combines two earlier surveys; the Employment Rights at Work Survey, 2005 (ERWS) (not available from the UKDA) and the Fair Treatment at Work Pilot Survey, 2005-2006 (available from the UKDA under SN 6203).

The main aims of the Fair Treatment at Work Survey, 2008 were:

• to assess people's general awareness of their rights at work and to see how this has changed since the last survey
• to determine knowledge about specific rights at work (the National Minimum Wage and holiday entitlement)
• to find out which sources of advice people would use to find out about their rights at work in general and to find out about the National Minimum Wage
• to measure the proportion of individuals that has had problems at work in the last five years
• to determine how people go about resolving the most serious problems which they have had

Main Topics:

The main questionnaire covered the following broad areas:

• awareness of employment rights
• knowledge of specific employment rights
• sources of information and advice
• experience of employment problems
• resolving problems and disputes
• job and employer characteristics
• socio-demographics and other individual characteristics

The self-completion questionnaire covered some additional areas:

• respondents' work
• trust
• other employer-related behaviour
• feelings about work

Minimalne wynagrodzenie w Wielkiej Brytanii wzrosło do 12,21 GBP/godz. w 2025 r. z 11,44 GBP/godz. w 2024 r. Aktualne wartości, dane historyczne, prognozy, statystyki, wykresy i kalendarz ekonomiczny - Wielka Brytania - Płaca Minimalna.

There were over 25.4 million full-time workers in the United Kingdom as of December 2024. Compared with January 2000, there has been a net increase of around 4.95 million full-time workers in the UK, despite significant falls in full-time employment between May 2008 and April 2010.

There were over 33.8 million people employed in the United Kingdom in the three months to December 2024. This represented a peak for the number of people employed in the country during this provided time period. In general, the number of people employed has consistently increased, with noticeable dips in employment occurring in 2008 due to the global financial crisis, and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Labor market hot streak in 2022 Although there was a sharp increase in the UK's unemployment rate in the aftermath of COVID-19, the UK labor market bounced back forcefully after this sudden shock. By the middle of 2022, the UK's unemployment rate had recovered to pre-pandemic levels, while the number of job vacancies in the UK reached record highs. Wage growth was, by this point, growing at a much slower rate than inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022. In the two years since this peak, the UK labor market has cooled slightly; with unemployment reaching 4.4 percent by December 2024, and the number of job vacancies falling to the lowest figures since May 2021. Characteristics of UK workers As of 2024, the majority of UK workers were working in the private sector, at over 27.6 million workers. In the same year the size of the UK's public sector workforce stood at approximately 6.1 million, with over two million of these people working for the UK's National Health Service (NHS), and a further 1.66 million in the public education sector. In the UK's private sector, the industry sector which employed the most people was wholesale and retail, which had a workforce of over 4.9 million people, followed by administrative and support service roles at around 3.1 million.

While the cost of a basic food basket as a share of net minimum wages in Ireland and the United Kingdom is quite modest, such a basket costs more than the minimum wage in Nigeria.

In 2022/23 the median annual household disposable income in the United Kingdom amounted to approximately 31,817 British pounds. Between 1994/95 and 2007/08 the average household disposable income showed year-on-year increases, but after this point, income levels began to stagnate and even decline in some years. Although average household disposable resumed a steady growth pattern between 2012/13 and 2016/17, it has fluctuated in more recent years, and declined in the most recent two years. Economic shocks and disposable income The steady growth of disposable income from 1994 to 2008 reflected the generally healthy UK economy in that period. After the global financial crisis, however, the UK economy was plunged into a deep recession that is mirrored by a decline in disposable income. Although there was a period of recovery between 2013 and 2016, the UK economy has suffered a series of economic shocks since that point. The Brexit Referendum of 2016, and the subsequent economic and political fallout, was followed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and in more recent years by the Inflation Crisis and Ukraine War. Living costs putting UK households under pressure Between January and April 2022, the share of people reporting an increase in their living costs compared with the previous month rose from 66 percent to 91 percent. This corresponded with significant price increases at that time, with CPI inflation surging from 0.4 percent in February 2021 to a 41-year-high of 11.1 percent by October 2022. Although inflation did gradually start to decline in the following months, it wasn't until July 2023 that wages caught up with inflation. The surge in energy and food prices that caused this high inflation, was devastating for UK households, leading to the worst Cost of Living Crisis for decades.

As of 2023, the average annual wage of Germany was 48,301 euros per year, a growth of almost 6,000 Euros when compared with 2000. From 2000 until 2007, wages rose by less than a thousand euros, with wage growth accelerating mainly in the period after 2010. Comparisons with rest of the EU Within the European Union Luxembourg had an average annual salary of almost 80 thousand Euros, with Germany having an annual salary comparable to other large European Countries, such as the United Kingdom and France. In neighboring Poland, the average annual salary was just over 39 thousand U.S dollars, meaning that German’s earned, on average, 20 percent more than what their Polish counterparts did. German economy slowing in 2023 While Germany initially had one of the strongest recoveries from the 2008 financial crash and as of 2020 had the largest economy in Europe its economy has started to slow in recent years. For 2023 the German economy is contracted by 0.26 percent, and while 2024 marked a slight improvement, the expectations are that 2025 remains a year of slow growth.

Renters in the UK spent on average 32.5 percent of their income on rent as of January 2025. Scotland and Yorkshire and Humber were the most affordable regions, with households spending less than 28 percent of their gross income on rent. Conversely, London, South West, and South East had a higher ratio. Greater London is the most expensive region for renters Greater London has a considerably higher rent than the rest of the UK regions. In 2024, the average rental cost in Greater London was more than twice higher than in the North West or West Midlands. Compared with Greater London, rent in the South East region was about 600 British pounds cheaper. London property prices continue to increase In recent years, house prices in the UK have been steadily increasing, and the period after the COVID-19 pandemic has been no exception. Prime residential property prices in Central London are forecast to continue rising until 2027. A similar trend in prime property prices is also expected in Outer London.