Where does your salary actually rank in the UK?

£39,039 gross a year for full-time employees in April 2025, from the provisional ASHE release the ONS published on 23 October 2025. Half of full-time employees earn more than that and half earn less. The mean is higher at £48,512 because very high earners pull it up. This calculator still ranks you against the April 2024 median of £37,430, and the April 2026 figures should follow in the autumn.

£49,692 gross a year at the median for full-time jobs based in London, on the provisional ASHE 2025 figures, which is about £10,650 above the national median of £39,039. Rent eats much of the difference. Average private rent in London was £2,317 a month in July 2026, against £783 in the North East. A salary at the 75th percentile nationally only reaches about the 56th within London, and the calculator shows you both figures.

Yes by the numbers, since £40,000 sits just above the national full-time median of £39,039, at roughly the 52nd percentile on the provisional ASHE 2025 figures. It rarely feels that way. Within London the same salary sits below the local median of £49,692, while outside the capital it buys a comfortable life in most regions. How good it feels comes down mostly to where you live and what you pay for housing.

No, the £39,039 figure covers full-time employees only. Part-time employees have a much lower median, partly because they work fewer hours and partly because part-time roles cluster in lower-paying sectors. ASHE keeps the two groups separate and this calculator defaults to the full-time comparison. If you work part-time and measure yourself against full-time data your percentile will come out lower than it should, so switch the employment type and compare like with like.

Because pay is skewed to the right. The mean full-time UK salary is £48,512 while the median is £39,039 (ASHE 2025, provisional), and the gap exists because a small number of very high earners pull the mean up without moving the median at all. For judging your own position the median is the better benchmark every time. When a news report says "average salary", check which one it means, since the choice shifts the benchmark by more than £9,000.

Noticeably, if you compare against your own sex. The full-time gender pay gap was 6.9% in April 2025 on median hourly pay, and full-time annual medians were £41,832 for men and £35,670 for women, so a woman earning £39,039 sits at the overall median and above the women's median. It's widest for employees aged 40 and over, while for those aged 22 to 29 it's just 0.9%. Set the sex field above to see both readings.

No. ASHE samples jobs from HMRC PAYE records, so it covers employees only and misses the self-employed, about 4.5 million people or 13% of those in work (Labour Force Survey, March to May 2026). Self-employed income looks quite different from employee pay, with a lower median and a far wider spread. If you're self-employed, read your percentile here as where you'd rank among employees, since it says nothing about your place in the working population as a whole.

Once a year. ASHE is published in October or November and describes pay in April of that year, so there's always a 6 to 7 month lag between the reference period and publication. In between, HMRC's monthly PAYE Real Time Information statistics give median monthly pay by region, more current but less detailed. This calculator's model still runs on the April 2024 figures, which the result panel names, while the table on this page uses April 2025.

Close, though ASHE is a sample and not a census. The April 2025 survey achieved 174,000 returns, drawn from HMRC PAYE records. For total income rather than employee pay, HMRC's Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) uses a large sample of tax records and takes in the self-employed and people with several income sources as well as employees. Both are official statistics published annually. (Source: HMRC Survey of Personal Incomes 2023 to 2024, published April 2026; ONS ASHE 2025)

Yes, by more than it varies by region. The provisional ASHE 2025 figures show median full-time pay running from £28,687 in accommodation and food services to £58,488 in financial and insurance activities, with information and communication at £52,264 and education at £39,999. Occupation matters as much as industry, since a software developer in the public sector and one in fintech earn quite different money inside the same broad sector.

About the 70th percentile for a full-time UK employee, on the provisional ONS ASHE 2025 figures. In London the same salary sits at about the 50th percentile, the local median, because the capital's whole distribution sits higher. £50,270 is also where income tax moves from the basic rate (20%) to the higher rate (40%), which leaves £50,000 just under the higher-rate band. UK income, wealth and savings benchmarks are gathered on the net worth statistics page.

£54,009 gross a year or more, which is the 75th percentile for full-time UK employees in the provisional ONS ASHE 2025 figures. Most people would call that salary comfortably middle class, and it's already the start of the top quarter. Across all employees including part-time the 75th percentile is lower, at £48,283, because part-time roles sit at the bottom of the pay distribution. Use the employment type filter above to compare against the group that matches your own situation.