New UK salary calculator shows how your pay compares across jobs and towns

An interactive salary calculator that draws on Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2024 median earnings data lets workers across the UK compare their pay with peers in the same occupation and with employees in their local area, and see estimated take-home pay after tax, National Insurance and student loan repayments.

The tool uses median rather than mean figures, based on Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records for full- and part-time employees, to give a mid-point view of earnings for each occupation. It also allows users to enter their age and postcode to calculate differences such as the effect of National Insurance exemptions for people at state pension age and the impact of different student loan plans.

Key findings from the 2024 medians show the overall average salary for all employees (full- and part-time) at about £31,602, which the calculator estimates to be roughly £25,512 after income tax and National Insurance. For full-time employees specifically the median is higher, at £37,430. Occupations at the top of the pay scale include pilots and air traffic controllers (median £96,415, or about £66,478 after tax), marketing, sales and advertising directors (£82,962, or £58,675 after tax) and chief executives and senior officials (median £81,776). The calculator also provides percentile comparisons: a pre-tax salary of £25,000 places a worker below about two-thirds of earners, £35,000 sits above roughly 56% of employees, and a £100,000 salary exceeds about 94% of full-time workers.

Wage patterns differ markedly between the private and public sectors. Public-sector senior police officers earned a median of £63,986 in 2024, placing them in the top 15% of earners, while police sergeants and below had median pay of £46,436. In health care, paramedics had a median income of £52,241, specialist nurses and nurse practitioners earned about £40,759 and £39,292 respectively, and specialist medical practitioners, including surgeons and anaesthetists, had a median of £70,192. General practitioners reported a median of £45,506. By contrast, many lower-paid roles are concentrated in seasonal or part-time work: exam invigilators recorded a median annual pay of £2,393, sales and retail assistants £13,701 (about £13,384 after tax), beauticians £14,883 and hairdressers and barbers £14,944.

Trades and technical occupations sit around the middle of the distribution, with scaffolders, stagers and riggers at £38,077, electricians at £38,675 and plumbers at £37,414. Teaching support roles are substantially lower than qualified teachers: teaching assistants had a median of £17,338, while primary teachers were at £39,284 and secondary teachers £42,370. The calculator flags that many of those in lowest-paid jobs would not pay income tax if the personal allowance had been uprated in line with inflation since 2021.

Regional contrasts remain stark. The highest-paid boroughs are concentrated in London and Surrey: Richmond upon Thames had a median full-time salary of £47,588, followed by Westminster at £45,910, Wandsworth £45,394, Kensington and Chelsea £44,355 and Islington £43,126. The lowest medians were recorded in West Devon (£23,941) and Gwynedd in Wales (£24,165), around 35–36% below the UK average. On growth, the East of England saw the largest increase in full-time weekly earnings in 2024 (7.4%), followed by the North West (6.7%); Scotland and Northern Ireland recorded the weakest growth at 4.3%.

Sectoral pay rises were uneven between 2023 and 2024. Accommodation and food services led growth with a 9.8% increase, agriculture, forestry and fishing rose 9.7%, and information and communication and financial and insurance each increased by 9.5%. Overall private-sector wages rose 6.3% while full-time public-sector roles increased by 5.2%; mining and quarrying posted the smallest rise, at 1.6%.

The calculator illustrates how age and student loan repayments change take-home pay. For example, someone under state pension age on £25,000 would take home about £21,543 a year (roughly £1,795 per month), while someone at state pension age with the same pay would take home about £22,537 a year (roughly £1,878 per month) because they no longer pay National Insurance. A 50-year-old chief executive on the median £81,776 would take home about £57,987 after tax, compared with £61,634 for a 70-year-old with the same pay. Student loan repayments also reduce net pay: a chief executive repaying a Plan 1 loan would net about £52,973, and under Plan 2 about £53,190, nearly 10% less than without a loan. Lower earners on Plan 2 might pay around £300 a year versus nearly £500 on Plan 1.

Economists and recruitment specialists quoted with the calculator’s release underlined the tight labour market and slow real wage recovery. Jack Kennedy, senior economist at job site Indeed, said real wages are only about 3% higher than in early 2008, noting that recent nominal growth has largely restored earnings to pre-pandemic levels. He advised workers seeking pay rises to document their contributions, new skills and market benchmarks when negotiating with employers. Lee Biggins, founder and chief executive of CV-Library, said fewer job adverts now include salary information than 18 months ago and recommended targeting sectors with higher pay or stronger growth such as information technology and health care.

The analysis also highlights policy effects on household incomes. The personal allowance for income tax has been frozen at £12,570 since 2021; the calculator’s authors note that had it risen with inflation it would be closer to £17,047, which would have reduced tax liabilities for many lower-paid workers. The ONS data underlying the tool provide a snapshot of medians across occupations and regions but do not capture within-occupation variation caused by experience, hours worked, employer size or additional earnings such as bonuses.

The salary calculator is intended to give workers a data-based starting point for understanding where their pay sits within wider labour-market trends and for benchmarking when considering pay talks, career moves or sector changes.