Optometrist Salary
Official ONS earnings for the UK, covering 14,000 jobs.
Median salary
£38,743
gross, per year, all employees
Part-time work is common in this occupation, so the figure above sits 31.7% below the £51,030 median for people working full-time.
Full-time only
£51,030
Mean
£44,097
Jobs measured
14,000
What a typical optometrist takes home
On the full-time median of £51,030, 2026/27 tax year, England, Wales and Northern Ireland rates, no pension or student loan.
Take-home a month
£3,346
Take-home a year
£40,155
Income Tax
£7,844
National Insurance
£3,031
Where this figure comes from
- ONS occupation group
- Optometrists
- SOC 2020 code
- 2252
- Measure
- Gross annual pay, all employees
- Edition
- ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional
ONS publishes a sampling error of 18.0% for this figure and asks that anything above 10% is treated as imprecise — too few people in this region answered the survey for this occupation. The figure is shown because it is the one ONS published, but it is not firm enough to rank this region against anywhere else, so this page doesn't.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are estimates from a survey of PAYE jobs and are not financial advice.
Optometrist salary FAQs
What is the average Optometrist salary in the UK?
The median is £38,743 a year and the mean is £44,097, according to the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Those cover all employees; full-time employees alone have a median of £51,030.
How much does a optometrist earn per hour?
Across the UK the median hourly rate is £26.02 excluding overtime, or £25.62 for full-time employees. ASHE publishes hourly pay by occupation nationally only.
How many optometrists are there in the UK?
ASHE counts around 14,000 employee jobs in “Optometrists” (SOC 2252) in the UK. Self-employed work is not included.
Is this figure official?
Yes. It comes from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, an accredited official statistic based on employer PAYE records.
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