In 2024, the average annual full-time earnings for the top ten percent of earners in the United Kingdom was 72,150 British pounds, compared with 22,763 for the bottom ten percent of earners. As of this year, the average annual earnings for all full-time employees was 37,430 pounds, up from 34,963 pounds in the previous year. Strong wage growth continues in 2025 As of February 2025, wages in the UK were growing by approximately 5.9 percent compared with the previous year, with this falling to 5.6 percent if bonus pay is included. When adjusted for inflation, regular pay without bonuses grew by 2.1 percent, with overall pay including bonus pay rising by 1.9 percent. While UK wages have now outpaced inflation for almost two years, there was a long period between 2021 and 2023 when high inflation in the UK was rising faster than wages, one of the leading reasons behind a severe cost of living crisis at the time. UK's gender pay gap falls in 2024 For several years, the difference between average hourly earnings for men and women has been falling, with the UK's gender pay gap dropping to 13.1 percent in 2024, down from 27.5 percent in 1997. When examined by specific industry sectors, however, the discrepancy between male and female earnings can be much starker. In the financial services sector, for example, the gender pay gap was almost 30 percent, with professional, scientific and technical professions also having a relatively high gender pay gap rate of 20 percent.

In March 2025, the top one percent of earners in the United Kingdom received an average pay of over 16,000 British pounds per month, compared with the bottom ten percent of earners who earned around 800 pounds a month.

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 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.

75% of households from the Bangladeshi ethnic group were in the 2 lowest income quintiles (after housing costs were deducted) between April 2021 and March 2024.

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.

Households in the bottom decile in the United Kingdom earned, on average, ****** British pounds per year in 2022/23, compared with the top decile which earned ******* pounds per year.

24.60 (%) in 2021. Percentage share of income or consumption is the share that accrues to subgroups of population indicated by deciles or quintiles.

FOCUSON**LONDON**2010:**INCOME**AND**SPENDING**AT**HOME** Household income in London far exceeds that of any other region in the UK. At £900 per week, London’s gross weekly household income is 15 per cent higher than the next highest region. Despite this, the costs to each household are also higher in the capital. Londoners pay a greater amount of their income in tax and national insurance than the UK average as well as footing a higher bill for housing and everyday necessities. All of which leaves London households less well off than the headline figures suggest. This chapter, authored by Richard Walker in the GLA Intelligence Unit, begins with an analysis of income at both individual and household level, before discussing the distribution and sources of income. This is followed by a look at wealth and borrowing and finally, focuses on expenditure including an insight to the cost of housing in London, compared with other regions in the UK. See other reports from this Focus on London series. REPORT: To view the report online click on the image below. Income and Spending Report PDF https://londondatastore-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/fol/fol10-income-cover-thumb1.png" alt="Alt text"> PRESENTATION: This interactive presentation finds the answer to the question, who really is better off, an average London or UK household? This analysis takes into account available data from all types of income and expenditure. Click on the link to access. PREZI The Prezi in plain text version RANKINGS: https://londondatastore-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/fol/fol10-income-tableau-chart-thumb.jpg" alt="Alt text"> This interactive chart shows some key borough level income and expenditure data. This chart helps show the relationships between five datasets. Users can rank each of the indicators in turn. Borough rankings Tableau Chart MAP: These interactive borough maps help to geographically present a range of income and expenditure data within London. Interactive Maps - Instant Atlas DATA: All the data contained within the Income and Spending at Home report as well as the data used to create the charts and maps can be accessed in this spreadsheet. Report data FACTS: Some interesting facts from the data… ● Five boroughs with the highest median gross weekly pay per person in 2009: -1. Kensington & Chelsea - £809 -2. City of London - £767 -3. Westminster - £675 -4. Wandsworth - £636 -5. Richmond - £623 -32. Brent - £439 -33. Newham - £422 ● Five boroughs with the highest median weekly rent for a 2 bedroom property in October 2010: -1. Kensington & Chelsea - £550 -2. Westminster - £500 -3. City of London - £450 -4. Camden - £375 -5. Islington - £360 -32. Havering - £183 -33. Bexley - £173 ● Five boroughs with the highest percentage of households that own their home outright in 2009: -1. Bexley – 38 per cent -2. Havering – 36 per cent -3. Richmond – 32 per cent -4. Bromley – 31 per cent -5. Barnet – 28 per cent -31. Tower Hamlets – 9 per cent -32. Southwark – 9 per cent

In 2022/23 approximately *****million taxpayers in the United Kingdom earned between 20,000 and 29,999 British pounds in this tax year, the most of any income level, while approximately *******taxpayers in the UK earned over one million pounds.

In 2022 the top one percent of earners in the United Kingdom accounted for around 10.2 percent of the overall national income of the UK. The share of national income earned by the top one percent increased from 6.8 percent in 1980 to a peak of 14.8 percent in 2007.

In July 2024, the BBC released annual information regarding employees’ salaries. Sports presenter Gary Lineker was the highest paid BBC employee, with an approximate income of 1.35 million British pounds. This was followed by radio presenter Zoe Ball, with her pay below the billion-pound mark. Ken Bruce – the power of loyal fans In mid-2023, after 30 years of employment at BBC, Ken Bruce, one of the highest-earning presenters of the company, left to work at a rival radio station. Bruce is known for his mellow presenting style and a trademarked Popmaster music quiz. He took both to his new employer. Even though BBC Radio 2 remains the leading radio station in the UK by audience numbers, Bruce’s departure meant a loss of a million listeners for the BBC between the first and second quarters of 2023. It is reported that these fans followed Bruce to his new mid-morning show on Greatest Hits Radio. In general, the BBC runs national UK radio stations, as well as multiple regional and local radio services. The share of all BBC radio stations in the total listening time in the UK is just over 50 percent. BBC Radio 4 has always taken up the largest share of the corporation’s spending on radio programming, while Radio 5 live and Radio 2 follow suit. BBC – sources of income The majority of BBC’s income comes from the license fee. It is a tax which must be paid by each household in the UK in order to receive live television programming, stream online TV via the internet, or watch BBC programs on iPlayer. In 2023 the cost of the fee was 159 British pounds. More than 65 percent of the company’s income is attributed to this funding. The remainder of BBC income and revenue consists of commercial (mainly BBC Worldwide) income and Grant-in-Aid for World Service income. In total, BBC’s revenue from TV business and offerings surpassed 20 billion British pounds in 2022.

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.

39.8% of workers from the Indian ethnic group were in 'professional' jobs in 2021 – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups in this role.

In 2024, HSBC Bank plc reported the highest median bonus pay gap between women and men among the largest banks in the United Kingdom (UK) with over ** percent. Lloyds Bank plc followed, with a median pay gap for bonuses of **** percent.

Among the five largest banks in the United Kingdom (UK), HSBC Holdings had the lowest cost-to-income ratio (CIR) in 2024, at 20.2 percent. It was followed by NatWest and Standard Chartered, both with CIRs between 50 and 60 percent. The CIR is a key financial metric used to assess a bank’s profitability, as it compares operating costs to income. A lower CIR indicates higher profitability and operational efficiency, while a higher ratio suggests that a bank's operating expenses are too high relative to its income.

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is one of the largest surveys of the earnings of individuals in the UK. Data on the wages, paid hours of work, and pensions arrangements of nearly one per cent of the working population are collected. Other variables relating to age, occupation and industrial classification are also available. The ASHE sample is drawn from National Insurance records for working individuals, and the survey forms are sent to their respective employers to complete.

While limited in terms of personal characteristics compared to surveys such as the Labour Force Survey, the ASHE is useful not only because of its larger sample size, but also the responses regarding wages and hours are considered to be more accurate, since the responses are provided by employers rather than from employees themselves. A further advantage of the ASHE is that data for the same individuals are collected year after year. It is therefore possible to construct a panel dataset of responses for each individual running back as far as 1997, and to track how occupations, earnings and working hours change for individuals over time. Furthermore, using the unique business identifiers, it is possible to combine ASHE data with data from other business surveys, such as the Annual Business Survey (UK Data Archive SN 7451).

The ASHE replaced the New Earnings Survey (NES, SN 6704) in 2004. NES was developed in the 1970s in response to the policy needs of the time. The survey had changed very little in its thirty-year history. ASHE datasets for the years 1997-2003 were derived using ASHE methodologies applied to NES data.

The ASHE improves on the NES in the following ways:

• the NES questionnaire allowed too much variation in employer responses, leading to wide variations in the data
• weightings have been introduced to take account of the population size (significant biases were a known problem in NES data)
• the significant numbers of employees who change jobs between the sample selection and survey reference dates are retained in the ASHE sample, whereas these were dropped from the NES

Linking to other business studies
These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

Observations from Northern Ireland
The ASHE data held by the UK Data Archive include very few observations from Northern Ireland. Users requiring access to Northern Ireland data are advised to contact the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, who administer this aspect of the survey.

Local unit reference variable, luref
The local unit reference variable 'luref', is generated to indicate multiple occurrences of the same local unit for disclosure checking purposes. It is inconsistent across years and is not an IDBR reference number. It should not be used to link ASHE with other business datasets.

For Secure Lab projects applying for access to this study as well as to SN 6697 Business Structure Database and/or SN 7683 Business Structure Database Longitudinal, only postcode-free versions of the data will be made available.

Latest Edition Information
For the twenty-sixth edition (February 2025), the data file 'ashegb_2023r_2024p_pc' has been added, along with the accompanying data dictionary.