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Official ONS earnings · 224 occupations

Salaries in Scotland 2026

What people actually earn across Scotland, by occupation — median gross annual pay from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

Typical occupation

£34,625

The midpoint across every occupation ONS publishes for this region

Lowest paid

£8,510

Median pay in the lowest-paying occupation here

Highest paid

£114,012

Median pay in the highest-paying occupation here

ONS doesn't publish a single “average wage” per region in this dataset, so the typical figure above is the midpoint of 224 published occupation medians — it describes the spread of occupations, not the average worker. Read the methodology before using it to evaluate an offer.

Highest-paying occupations in Scotland

Specialist medical practitioners £114,012
Chief executives and senior officials £87,808
Aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers £83,364 Train and tram drivers £70,367 Head teachers and principals £67,633
Senior police officers £65,529
Production managers and directors in mining and energy £62,747
Clinical psychologists £60,846 Paramedics £59,371
Electrical engineers £59,276
Business and financial project management professionals £58,985
Production managers and directors in construction £57,653
Rail and rolling stock builders and repairers £56,764
Production managers and directors in manufacturing £55,752
Financial managers and directors £55,044 Sales accounts and business development managers £54,813 Civil engineers £54,668
Skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades supervisors £54,497
Pharmacists £52,273 Quantity surveyors £51,960 Cyber security professionals £51,802 IT managers £51,782 Finance and investment analysts and advisers £51,665
Research and development (R&D) managers £51,456
Police officers (sergeant and below) £51,135

Lowest-paying occupations in Scotland

Care escorts £8,510
Cleaners and domestics £12,791
Kitchen and catering assistants £13,135
Sales and retail assistants £13,717
Educational support assistants £16,412
Coffee shop workers £16,910
Teaching assistants £17,529
Cooks £18,535
Receptionists £19,095
Vehicle valeters and cleaners £20,130

Compare Scotland with another region

See which occupations pay more on each side.

vs East of England vs East Midlands vs London vs North East vs North West vs South East vs South West vs Wales vs West Midlands vs Yorkshire and The Humber

Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional), Table 15. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.