By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) -The median full-time salary in Britain rose to 39,039 pounds before tax ($52,394) this year, up 4.3% from a year earlier, annual official figures showed on Thursday.
The annual increase was down from a 7.0% rise in 2024 and the smallest since 2021 when wages were depressed by many workers being on reduced furlough pay during the pandemic.
Nevertheless, the 2025 increase is above the rates that were typical in the years after the global financial crisis.
Adjusted for higher inflation, the median salary this year is up 1.1%, the Office for National Statistics said, using its preferred CPIH measure of price increases.
Faster pay growth came for workers in the care and leisure sectors who benefited from a 6.7% rise in the minimum wage which took effect in April.
The data comes from the ONS’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, its most comprehensive study of pay and earnings, and is based on earnings in April each year.
The survey showed a declining proportion of low-paid jobs – those paying under two thirds of median earnings, which the increased minimum wage was designed to eliminate. These fell to a record-low 2.5% of the workforce, down from 3.4% in 2024.
What the ONS defines as high-paid jobs – those paying 50% more per hour than the median – rose to 23.2% of the total after accounting for a record-low 22.7% of the workforce last year.
A full-time employee would need to earn 1,473.50 pounds a week – just under 77,000 pounds a year – to be in the top 10% of full-time employees in Britain.
The ONS said the gender pay gap – the difference in median hourly earnings for men and women, which does not adjust for differences in skills, experience, education or occupation – fell to 6.7% in 2025 for full-time employees from 7.1% in 2024.
The gender pay gap has been declining steadily since the ONS data began in 1997.
($1 = 0.7451 pounds)
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by William James)
