Pay movement over time

Salary Trends

Track how reported salaries change over time and inspect the sample behind every trend.

ONS publishes how each occupation's median pay moved against the previous year. That gives one clean year-on-year comparison — not a rolling trend line. Everything below is that single movement, from ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional.

Biggest pay rises

Occupations with at least 20,000 jobs, ranked by year-on-year change in median pay.

Specialist medical practitioners

£88,997 · 187,000 jobs

+26.9%

Financial and accounting technicians

£53,265 · 29,000 jobs

+26.3%

Aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers

£68 · 21,000 jobs

+24%

Elementary administration occupations n.e.c.

£23,005 · 23,000 jobs

+23.5%

Brokers

£26 · 22,000 jobs

+22.3%

Retail cashiers and check-out operators

£14,018 · 51,000 jobs

+20.4%

Train and tram drivers

£76,176 · 26,000 jobs

+19.3%

Insurance underwriters

£23 · 27,000 jobs

+18.5%

Specialist medical practitioners

£45 · 242,000 jobs

+17.3%

Managers and directors in the creative industries

£50,868 · 23,000 jobs

+16.2%

Biggest falls

Median pay can fall because the mix of people doing the job changed, not only because rates were cut.

Barristers and judges

£34,253 · 28,000 jobs

-37.6%

Postal workers, mail sorters and messengers

£29,761 · 116,000 jobs

-6.3%

Financial managers and directors

£65,336 · 430,000 jobs

-5.4%

Architects

£23 · 36,000 jobs

-5.1%

Mental health nurses

£21 · 28,000 jobs

-4.4%

Air travel assistants

£28,808 · 42,000 jobs

-4.3%

Clergy

£16 · 43,000 jobs

-4.2%

Housekeepers and related occupations

£16,618 · 40,000 jobs

-3.6%

Actuaries, economists and statisticians

£51,520 · 43,000 jobs

-3.5%

Paramedics

£50,294 · 40,000 jobs

-3.4%

Based on 470 occupations where ONS published both a median and a year-on-year change. Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional). Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.