How big a pay rise did you get this year? According to Office for National Statistics data, it should have been around 4.3 per cent.
That’s because the average annual full-time wage increased by that amount: from £37,439 in April 2024 to £39,039 this April.
But our exclusive analysis of the data can reveal which occupations far exceeded this average, with some scoring growth into the double-digit percentages
This comes despite an increase in job losses following Rachel Reeves’ £25 billion payroll tax hike on employer National Insurance contributions and a gloomy economic outlook all making it more difficult to find a job.
Some workers are changing career to protect themselves from looming job cuts – or to find their own inflation-beating salary bumps. And if you are doing this, it’s important to know what others get paid.
We analysed figures from the newly released ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) to deliver a snapshot of average pay across UK occupations and reveal which jobs bagged the biggest pay rises between 2024 and 2025.
Have you received a pay rise in line with inflation and average earnings? And which jobs offer the best salary? Here we reveal all – and you can also check what happened to your job and others with our online calculator below.
Specialist medical practitioners, such as surgeons, saw their earnings climb 23.8%
The big pay rise winners
Among mainstream jobs, financial and accounting experts saw a 24.5 per cent increase to a median salary of £60,575, while specialist medical practitioners’ earnings climbed 23.8 per cent to £92,847, childminders received a 20.3 per cent rise to £24,278, and train and tram drivers got a 19.3 per cent bump to an average of £76,327.
The ONS is cautious about making comparisons for professions with smaller numbers of workers, as the lower sample size can mean figures are skewed by a shift in who is covered by the survey.
Among these less common roles, journalists recorded a 30.9 per cent increase to a median of £44,534, clinical psychologists a 27.4 per cent rise to £58,366 and speech and language therapists a 20.8 per cent jump to £45,511.
Among other jobs that saw a double-digit percentage increase in salary were bakers with a 16.3 per cent rise to £29,117, optometrists with a 14 per cent increase to £51,030, and cyber-security professionals whose average salary rose 12.6 per cent to £54,647.
Northern Ireland saw the highest growth in earnings, with employees earning 7.4 per cent more in April 2025 than in April 2024. This is partly explained by public sector pay increases that date from early 2025. The regions with the smallest growth in average earnings were the South East (2.9 per cent) and Wales (4.2 per cent).
Check your job in the table below and click headers to reorder by amount or %
The salary fallers
The figures were bad news for some workers, however, as they indicate their earnings fell. Barristers and judges saw a 14.3 per cent fall to a median of £50,915, pest control officers saw a 7.8 per cent decline to £28,323 and postal workers’ earnings dropped 5.7 per cent to £31,677.
Although senior medical workers saw a big jump in the numbers, others in the sector suffered.
Specialist nurses experienced a 1.8 per cent fall to £45,140 and paramedics suffered a 1.5 per cent decline to £53,818.
The average electrician earns £39,467, according to the wide-ranging ONS study
The best paid jobs
The average salary for full-time employees, according to the ASHE study, is £39,039, which is around £31,627 after income tax and National Insurance contributions.
Chief executives top the ONS list of earners with a median salary of £99,944, which would be £68,525 after tax. That might seem low for a CEO, but these figures are for big and small businesses, not just large stock market-listed companies whose executives net millions.
Marketing, sales and advertising directors are close behind with an average salary of £94,135, or £65,155 after tax.
In the public sector, specialist medical practitioners such as surgeons and anaesthetists came in highest, with earnings of £92,847 on average, while head teachers got an average of £72,192.
Senior police officers earned £66,690, putting them among the top earners, whereas those at the rank of sergeant and below had average salaries of £45,490, with community support officers on £35,748.
In the medical field, paramedics typically took home £53,818, while specialist nurses and midwifery nurses earned £45,140 and £46,990. In the middle, electricians earned an average salary of £39,467, while plumbers got £37,881 and construction workers took home £34,822.
Teaching assistants had the lowest full-time average salary in the survey at £21,239
The lowest paid jobs
At the other end of the scale, teaching assistants had the lowest full-time average salary at £21,239 for the categories considered, followed by educational support assistants who got £21,448.
Hospitality workers were also on the lower end, with coffee shop workers and waiters and waitresses earning £21,598 and £22,936, respectively.
The adult minimum wage equates to £25,397 a year for a 40-hour working week, but often these roles are staffed by young people, where the rate is lower – around £20,800 for 18- to 20-year-olds and £15,704 for those under 18.
Childcare practitioners and pharmacy and optical dispensing assistants earn below the minimum wage on average: £23,717 and £23,783, respectively, while cleaners and cooks earn £24,228 and £24,278.
How are the salary figures worked out
The figures come from the ONS’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings report for 2024/25. It is the official look at earnings across all occupations, and it gives the median figure.
If you line up all the earners for that job in a row, from lowest to highest, the person in the middle is earning the median wage.
The ONS does not use the ‘mean’ figure – which would be adding up all salaries for an occupation and dividing them by the number of jobs to get an average – as this is more prone to being skewed by a few very high or very low earners. Also be aware that while these figures give a good snapshot of average earnings, it is not fully representative of what individual employees will earn as this will vary according to experience, location and how specialised their role is.
The figures are based on payments made to a full-time employee, using pay as you earn (PAYE) tax records.
When it comes to the amount your salary puts in your bank account, tax and other circumstances matter. For example, someone under the state pension age earning £40,000 will take home £32,320 a year, or £2,693 a month.
However, someone who has reached the state pension age and has the same income will take home more – £34,514 a year or £2,876 monthly – because they no longer pay National Insurance.
Student loan repayments also affect take-home pay. Someone on the average salary but paying back a Plan 1 loan will earn £30,463, or £30,679 if they’re on Plan 2.
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