Understanding pay data
What the numbers actually mean, and where they mislead.
UK pay in 2026: what the new ONS figures show
The median UK employee earned £34,229 in April 2026, up 4.2%. Which big jobs got the biggest rises, how far London pulled ahead, and why the gender pay gap fell to 6.8%. All from ONS's 2026 earnings survey.
Two Thirds of UK Nurses Are Filed Under 'Other'.
ONS does not have one occupation called "nurse" — it has seven, and 720,000 of the 1,078,000 nursing professionals in Britain are in the group it defines by what it is not.
Britain’s Biggest Reliable Pay Rise This Year Went to Care Workers
Full-time care pay rose 7.5% to £27,468 — the largest increase of any occupation with over 300,000 full-time employees. And London pays them less than Wales.
West Midlands Pay in 2026: Where Wages Rose Fastest, and Where They Didn't
Transport clerks up 19.4%, police officers up 12.2%, software developers up 2%. The West Midlands occupations where pay moved most, ranked on the 43 estimates ONS calls precise.
The Pay Gap Is 19.4% Among Office Managers. Two Thirds of Them Are Women.
Occupational pay gaps run three times wider than the 6.9% headline — and they persist in occupations where women are the clear majority.
Education Pay From the Top Down: Head Teachers to Midday Supervisors
Head teachers earn a median £70,977, teaching assistants £18,024. Every education occupation ONS measures, ranked, with the full-time figure that changes the order.
Journalist Pay Rose 30.7%. Probably Not.
The largest year-on-year movements in UK salary data sit almost entirely in small occupations. Here is how to tell a real pay rise from a sampling artefact.
Accountant Salary in the UK: What the Qualification Is Actually Worth
Chartered accountants earn a median £45,538, or £50,062 full-time, almost exactly the professional average. Where the money is in this career is the step to financial manager.
Train Drivers Earn £76,327. Architects Earn £47,143.
A job requiring no degree outpays medicine, engineering and architecture. What the ONS figures say about the graduate premium, and where the comparison is unfair.
The 10 Highest-Paying Jobs in the UK, According to PAYE Records
Pilots, IT directors, marketing directors and consultants top the ONS table. Train drivers are the only non-managerial job in it. The ten best-paid occupations, ranked on precise official medians.
Software Engineer Salary UK: £55,587 Median, and a 3.3x Spread
ONS puts the median UK software engineer salary at £55,587, with the top 10% above £101,172 and London 34% ahead of the country. The full breakdown by region, gender and IT role.
London Pays 64% More. Unless You Work in Care.
The London premium runs from +64% to below zero depending on the job. For care workers — 54,000 of them in the capital — London pays less than the UK median.