What Is A Good Salary in the UK?
Wondering if you’re on a good salary and how it stacks up against the average salary in the UK?
I’ve certainly Googled where my earnings sit compared to the national average – it’s natural to wonder how your situation stacks up against other people’s.
With the cost of living crisis, soaring interest rates and personal factors (like maybe a growing family to support) it’s understandable that your salary may be on your mind in particular right now.
There are many factors that can impact your salary – age and amount of experience being a huge one, along with your qualifications and where you’re working.
This article is going to look at what constitutes a “good salary” in the UK, as what would be a good salary to live comfortably.
Of course a good salary for a single person will be very different for a single parent, so I’ve taken multiple factors into consideration to give you an idea of the figures that would be relevant to you.
What’s a good salary in the UK?
A salary of £2,540 a month (after tax), or £40,000 a year, would be a decent amount to earn in the UK.
This would place you just above the mean salary of £39,966 a year, and well above the UK’s median salary of £27,756. It places you above the 50th percentile in terms of earnings.
But of course the answer isn’t as simple as that, because some people may find £40,000 is plenty to live on while others may struggle to make ends meet.
It’s influenced by factors such as your number of dependents, the cost of your mortgage, where you live (London is far more expensive than rural Wales), debts and other lifestyle factors.
For example a family of four where just one parent earns £40k, the other doesn’t work and the mortgage costs £1,500 a month (above the UK average of £753) isn’t likely to have much left from £2,540 every month.
However a single person without dependents or debts, paying a £750 a month mortgage is going to find that salary pretty great.
What’s a good salary to live comfortably in the UK?
If you want to live comfortably in the UK then a salary of £50,000 a year would give you £3,100 a month after tax and National Insurance. This would give you enough to pay a mortgage or rent, support a family, go out and enjoy an annual holiday.
It’s enough to cover the average cost of essential bills in the UK of around £1,500 a month, leaving you with £1,600 to spend on extras like holidays and gifts, and to save for the future.
It also places you among the top 20% of earners in the country.
There are a number of factors that will impact on whether this figure actually allows you to live comfortably.
Those include:
- Where you live – this will influence the cost of housing
- Your relationship status
- Number of children you have
- Age of your kids – younger kids cost more in terms of childcare
- Whether you send your kids to private school
- Travel costs – a commute into a city every day can cost thousands in train fares
- The earnings of your partner (if you have one) or any alimony payments you receive
- Cost of your mortgage
- Your spending on non-essentials – ie holidays, beauty treatments, days out, gifts etc
- Debts
For example if you are a couple with no kids living in a flat you earn with a mortgage and bills costing £1,500 a month then the £50k salary will mean you live very comfortably.
However if you are a single parent with three young kids under four then the picture looks a little different.
Say all your kids need daily childcare then that will cost an average of £263 per week per child under two (you’ll qualify for some free childcare for the older kids). It’s still a big chunk of change off your salary.
And if you have a higher than average mortgage (the average is £753 a month) for a large house then your monthly costs will soar further. While you may still be able to afford these things, you’ll be much less comfortable.
So taking that into consideration, under these following circumstances your ideal salary to live comfortably would be:
- Family of four living in the south of England where just one parent works a comfortable salary would be £70,000.
- Family of four where both parents work a comfortable salary would be £50,000 (assuming other parent earns at least £15,000 to £20,000).
- Single person living in a shared house with friend a comfortable salary would be £30,000.
- Single person living in their own property a comfortable salary would be £40,000.
- Couple with no kids living in their own property a comfortable salary would be £30,000 (assuming both work).
What’s the average salary in the UK?
The average salary in the UK is £39,966 for full-time workers and £14,727 for part-time employees in 2023, according to the latest UK employee earnings data from the ONS.
What about median earnings?
If we look at the median salary of workers in the UK then the numbers are a little difference.
This is because median is the value below which the annual salary of 50% of jobs fall.
It’s a more accurate way to represent the annual salary average, because it is less skewed the small percentage of very high earners (ie those in the £100k+ club).
So looking at the median salary data we see that:
- £27,756 is the median salary for all workers in the UK
- £33,000 is the median salary for full-time staff in the UK
- £12,247 is the median salary for part-time workers in the UK
What’s the average salary in London?
The median annual salary in London is £35,661. This is nearly £8,000 higher than for workers across the UK.
Employers will generally pay London-based workers more because the cost of living in the capital is so much higher than in other towns and cities.
Cities with the highest average salaries
Wondering where the highest earners live? These are the average earnings by UK city – as you can see the top 10 is very much dominated by places in the south of England.
- Guildford – £38,040
- London – £33,970
- Reading – £30,925
- Oxford – £30,575
- Edinburgh – £30,172
- Bristol – £29,923
- Southampton – £29,496
- Leeds – £28,639
- Coventry – £27,766
- Cardiff – £27,649
What about the gender pay gap?
Unfortunately it continues to be the case that men earn more than women, on average.
Full-time working male employees make £43,343 a year, compared to £34,993 for women also working full-time. That’s a difference of over £10,000 a year.
What jobs earn the lowest salary?
The lowest paid jobs in the UK include bar work, wait staff, laundry workers, teaching assistants, hairdressers and cashiers.
Their salaries tend to fall below £20,000, on average.
What jobs pay the highest salary?
Chief executives and senior officials, marketing sales and advertising directors, information technology directors and consultants (ie senior doctors) earn the best salaries in the UK.
People in these roles tend to earn an average of £65,000 or more.
What factors influence your salary?
There are a number of things that influence how much you earn.
And importantly some of these issues can also have an impact on your overall future earning potential – for example a junior doctor is likely to go on to become a consultant with far more earning potential than their starting salary.
A waiter who plans to continue being a waiter may struggle to earn significantly more over the course of their career.
Location
Where you live is likely to have a big impact on your salary. Those in London tend to receive more in most areas of work because it’s so much more expensive to live in the capital and employers need to pay their staff more to attract them.
Industry
The type of work you choose to do will of course have a huge impact on the salary potential.
Some jobs, such as doctors and lawyers, may start with a low salary of less than £30,000 a year but they can go on to earn over £100,000 a year after some time in the job.
People working in management positions for large corporations or marketing directors tend to earn the highest salaries.
Training and experience
Closely linked to industry is the training and experience you have. People who go to university and earn a degree tend to earn more over the course of their lifetime than those who do not.
In fact research shows over their working lives you can be £100,000 better off over the course of your working life if you have a degree.
There are some graduate jobs that begin with a decent salary that is close to or more than the UK average. Investment bankers can earn £40,000 on starting in the job.
Final thoughts
The data on average UK salaries may have helped you see where your own salary puts you in terms of earnings.
Remember that whether you have a “good salary” really depends on a lot of factors including your age and experience, your area of expertise, your monthly costs and number of dependents.
It’s worth noting that a survey of high earners found that 60% of Brits earning £80,000 to £100,000 considered themselves to be “about average” in terms of their earnings.
They also thought they were actually “worse off” than their own social circle.
What this can tell us is that whatever you may earn, you tend to assume your peers are earning more.
The cost of living is placing pressures on all budgets, with those on the very highest salaries struggling to keep up with high spending commitments they may have made when bills were lower, such as private schools and car finance.
If you would like to boost your monthly income then check out these ways to earn £1000 extra a month or these great side hustles.
