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 45 pence per hour between the hourly national minimum and national living wage. This gap was expected to grow to 96 pence per hour by 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.

Under a revised scheme announced on 11 February 2020, the naming of employers will resume. This process will call out businesses failing to pay their workers the National Minimum Wage and failing to comply with NW legislation rules. The scheme was paused in 2018 and came into force 6 April 2020.

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.

Number and percentage of jobs paid below the Living Wage Foundation (LWF) living wage in London (using London living wage) and for the UK excluding London (using UK LWF living wage). With breakdowns for working pattern, for 2009 to 2018.

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.

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.

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.

This statistic shows the predicted change in wages and salaries in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2017 until 2023, as a percentage change from the same time the preceding year. The wages and the salaries were forecasted to increase at 4.1 percent in 2018. In the following years a constant decrease is predicted.

The UK's median gender pay gap has substantially reduced from 36.4% in the 1970s to around 18%, yet it remains one of the highest in the EU and OECD. Previously attributed to differences in education and work experience, this explanation is outdated as women now frequently outpace men in education and are less likely to leave the workforce. However, women still earn about 10% less than men, even with similar work and qualifications. Research has shifted focus from productivity differences to the potential role of employer wage-setting practices. This research suggests that women's negotiating power may be undermined by familial responsibilities, leading to lower mobility in the job market and consequently lower wages. The study will explore how employer wage-setting power and job-to-job mobility contribute to the gender pay gap, aiming to inform effective policies.

The collection contains a set of syntax files used to construct an alternative employment concentration index that takes into account commuting costs. The files are based on the Stata language and use the Business Structure Dataset and the UK Longitudinal Household Study to derive the index.

The median gender pay gap has declined dramatically in the UK from 36.4% in the 1970 (O'Reilly, Smith et al. 2015) to around 18% in the most recent data (ONS 2018). Still, by international standards the pay gap is high: the UK has the fourth largest gender pay gap in the EU and the eighth largest of OECD countries (OECD 2019). Researchers and policy makers have focused on gender differences in education and labour market experience as the likely drivers of the pay gap. However, today these explanations no longer stand up to scrutiny. Women are on average better educated than men and they are much less likely to withdraw from the labour market for long periods of time. Nevertheless, women earn on average about 10% less than men even when they work full-time and have similar education and labour market experience. While explanations focusing on women's potential lower productivity as the cause of the gender pay gap have been thoroughly investigated and found inadequate, there is less evidence on the role played by employers. This research will contribute to addressing this gap. The standard economic model of the labour market assumes that wages are determined by the market and that individual employers cannot choose the wages they offer to their employees. A different model assumes that for a variety of reasons competition is not perfect and employers have some discretion over the wages they offer. This wage setting power is likely to be weaker when workers are mobile. Mobile workers will leave an employer offering wages below the market rate. However, if workers are relatively immobile, employers can exploit this 'immobility' by offering them lower wages. If women are more constrained by family responsibilities in the types of jobs that they will take-up or in the amount of time and effort they can devote to job search, they will generally be more immobile and thus at a disadvantage. Women's family responsibilities might be ultimately responsible for the gender pay gap but not because they limit their productivity but rather because they reduce their bargaining power with firms. This research project will examine the role of employer wage-setting power in driving the gender pay gap in two ways. First, using data from the UK's largest longitudinal study, it will investigate the extent to which job-to-job mobility patterns differ between men and women, and whether any differences can explain the observed gender gap in pay progression. Second, it will develop an index of employer wage-setting power based on geographical location, industry and cost of travel and test whether the index can explain gender differences in pay progression. Tackling the gender pay gap is a widely shared goal among policy makers, political parties, women's groups, trade-unions and employer organizations. A better understanding of the factors driving the gap is essential to design effective policies. For example, in April 2017, the UK government has mandated large employers report annually on the pay gap in their organization. If women's lower productivity is to blame for the gender pay gap, such legislation is likely to be ineffective and even counterproductive. On the other hand, mandatory reporting is likely to be more effective if employers' stronger wage-setting power is a significant factor behind the pay gap. More generally, if employers enjoy significant wage setting power relative to some of their employees, this has implications for legislation on anti-discrimination, the minimum wage, trade-unions and family policy.

This statistic illustrates the minimum and maximum annual salary brackets for finance controllers, 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 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, finance controllers with between 2 and 5 years experience earned between 60 thousand and 85 thousand British pounds per annum, whereas highly qualified specialists, with six years experience and more, earned between 75 thousand and 90 thousand British pounds per year.

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 market risk management specialists, working on a permanent basis, in the banking and financial services sector in London (United Kingdom) as of 2018, listed by 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 specialists, with up to two years experience, earned between 42 thousand and 58 thousand British pounds per annum, whereas highly qualified specialists with over ten years experience earned between 110 thousand and 150 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 illustrates the minimum and maximum annual salary brackets for market risk data specialists, working on a permanent basis, in the banking and financial services sector in London (United Kingdom) as of 2018, listed by 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 specialists with up to two years experience earned between 32 thousand and 48 thousand British pounds per annum, whereas highly qualified specialists with more than ten years experience earned between 90 thousand and 150 thousand British pounds per year.

This statistic illustrates the minimum and maximum annual salary brackets for change managers, working on a permanent basis, in the banking and financial services sector in London (United Kingdom) as of 2018, listed by 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 managers with between one and three years experience earned between 60 thousand and 90 thousand British pounds per annum, whereas highly qualified managers with more than six years experience earned between 110 thousand and 135 thousand British pounds per year.

This statistic illustrates the minimum and maximum annual salary brackets for management reporting specialists, working on a permanent basis, in the banking and financial services sector in London (United Kingdom) as of 2018, listed for the level of qualification. 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 specialists earned between 45 thousand and 58 thousand British pounds per annum, whereas highly qualified directors earned between 120 thousand and 200 thousand British pounds per year.

This statistic illustrates the minimum and maximum annual salary brackets for business change analysts, working on a permanent basis, in the banking and financial services sector in London (United Kingdom) as of 2018, listed by 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 analysts with between one and three years experience earned between 65 thousand and 80 thousand British pounds per annum, whereas highly qualified analysts with more than six years experience earned between 95 thousand and 115 thousand British pounds per year.