New salary calculator shows how UK pay compares by job, age and postcode

A new interactive salary calculator drawing on Office for National Statistics data lets UK workers see how their pay stacks up against others in the same occupation, their town and the wider workforce, and shows how taxes, National Insurance and student loans change take-home pay.

The tool, published by This is Money, uses 2024 ONS median earnings — the midpoint in a ranked list of salaries — to avoid distortion from a small number of very high or very low salaries. It covers both full- and part-time employees and is built from PAYE records, allowing users to enter salary, age and postcode to produce percentile comparisons and an estimate of monthly net income.

The dataset shows a wide spread in earnings across occupations and places. For all employees, the median pay was about £31,602 in 2024, equivalent to roughly £25,512 after income tax and National Insurance. For full-time employees the median was higher, at £37,430.

Pilots and air traffic controllers top the median pay table at £96,415, taking home about £66,478 after tax, placing them among the top 7% of earners. Marketing, sales and advertising directors and chief executives and senior officials also feature among the highest-paid occupations, with medians of about £82,962 and £81,776 respectively. The chief executives figure covers leaders across firms large and small, and is not restricted to those at publicly listed companies.

High earners in the public sector are typically paid less than their private-sector counterparts. Senior police officers had a median pay of £63,986 in 2024, placing them in the top 15% of earners, while sergeants and lower ranks were paid about £46,436. In health care, specialist medical practitioners — including surgeons and anaesthetists — had a median of about £70,192, while GPs earned around £45,506. Paramedics averaged £52,241 and specialist nurses roughly £40,759.

At the lower end of the scale, seasonal and part-time roles dominate. Exam invigilators recorded the lowest annual median pay at about £2,393, reflecting limited hours. Sales and retail assistants had a median of £13,701, putting them in the bottom 3% of earners, with beauticians and hairdressers also among the lowest-paid occupations. Teaching assistants earned a median of £17,338, substantially less than primary and secondary teachers, whose medians were about £39,284 and £42,370, respectively.

The calculator also places individual salaries within the wider distribution of earnings. For example, a pre-tax salary of £25,000 sits below roughly 67% of employees, £35,000 is above about 56% of employees, and £100,000 is higher than approximately 94% of full-time employees.

Age and entitlement to state pension change take-home pay because of National Insurance exemptions for pensioners. A worker under state pension age on £25,000 would take home about £21,543 a year (around £1,795 per month), while someone at state pension age on the same income would keep roughly £22,537 annually because they no longer pay National Insurance. Student loan repayments can reduce net pay further; for instance, a chief executive on the median chief executive salary repaying under Plan 1 could see around a 10% reduction to take-home pay compared with someone with no student loan.

Regional disparities remain pronounced. The highest medians for full-time pay are concentrated in London and parts of Surrey, with Richmond upon Thames at the top with a median of about £47,588, followed by Westminster at roughly £45,910. Wandsworth, Kensington and Chelsea, and Islington all rank in the top ten. By contrast, West Devon had the lowest median full-time salary at £23,941 and Gwynedd in Wales was next at £24,165, each more than a third below the UK full-time average.

Wage growth varied across regions and sectors between 2023 and 2024. The East of England saw the strongest growth in full-time weekly earnings at 7.4%, followed by the North West at 6.7%. Scotland and Northern Ireland recorded weaker growth at 4.3%. By industry, accommodation and food services led with a 9.8% increase, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing at 9.7%. Information and communication and financial and insurance activities posted 9.5% rises. Mining and quarrying recorded the smallest rise at 1.6%.

Wage rises were generally stronger in the private sector, which saw average pay increases of 6.3% in 2024, compared with 5.2% in the public sector. The slower public-sector growth was largely driven by large numbers of roles in education and health and social work, where earnings rose more slowly.

Economists and recruiters warned that headline pay growth has not necessarily restored real purchasing power for many households. Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Indeed, said real wages are only about 3% higher than in early 2008 and that recent nominal wage rises have largely restored real earnings to pre-pandemic levels rather than delivering substantial gains. He recommended that employees seeking higher pay clearly demonstrate added value, new skills and benchmark their salary against comparable roles.

Recruitment data also points to changing market signals. Lee Biggins, founder and chief executive of CV-Library, noted that fewer job adverts now include salary information compared with 18 months ago, which he attributed to a tighter labour market with fewer vacancies and more applicants per job. Biggins suggested job-seekers target sectors with stronger pay or faster growth, such as information technology and healthcare, where the same job title can command substantially different pay.

Wage stagnation at the lower end is compounded by tax thresholds that have not kept pace with inflation. Analysis accompanying the calculator found that the personal allowance, frozen at £12,570 since 2021, would have risen to about £17,047 if it had grown with inflation — a change that would remove income tax for many of the lowest-paid workers.

The calculator offers users a way to visualise where they sit in the earnings distribution and to compare pay for specific occupations and places. It also provides monthly and after-deduction estimates to help employees factor tax, National Insurance and student loan repayments into decisions about pay and career moves.

The ONS releases annual median earnings figures, and the calculator provides a snapshot based on the latest available 2024 data. Users and policymakers say such tools can inform pay negotiations and highlight regional and occupational gaps, but economists caution that averages and medians mask variation within roles and across firms, and that individual outcomes will depend on hours worked, seniority, employer size and other factors.