What Is a Good Salary in the UK? (2024 Data)

The question "what is a good salary?" has no single answer — it depends on your age, location, household costs, and career stage. But official data gives us solid benchmarks.

Here is what the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2024 tells us.

The UK Median Salary

The median gross annual salary for full-time employees in the UK was £37,430 in April 2024. That figure is the midpoint: half of full-time workers earn more, half earn less. Our UK average salary 2024 deep dive covers how the median has moved against inflation since 2020.

"Median" is a more useful benchmark than "average" (mean) because the mean is pulled upward by a small number of very high earners. If you earn £37,430, you are squarely in the middle of the full-time workforce.

What Counts as "Good"?

A common rule of thumb is to look at the upper quartile — the top 25% threshold:

Threshold	Annual gross pay (2024)
Top 10%	£73,000+
Top 25%	£50,500+
Median (50%)	£37,430
Bottom 25%	£25,200

If you earn above £50,500, you are in the top quarter of full-time UK earners. Many people consider this the threshold for a "good" salary, though whether it feels comfortable depends heavily on where you live.

Regional Variation

London salaries are substantially higher than the rest of the UK, partly because employers pay a London premium and partly because high-earning sectors (finance, tech, law) are concentrated there.

Median full-time salaries by region (ASHE 2024):

Region	Median annual gross pay
London	£47,600
South East	£40,500
East of England	£38,200
Scotland	£37,800
North West	£35,900
Yorkshire and the Humber	£34,800
Wales	£33,600
North East	£33,200

A salary of £45,000 in London sits close to the regional median — comfortable but not exceptional. The same salary in the North East puts you well into the top 20% of local earners. We unpack the capital separately in our London salary guide, which also covers what a London salary actually buys after rent.

Salary by Age

Earnings rise with experience and seniority. ONS data for 2024 shows the following median full-time pay by age group:

Age group	Median annual gross pay
18–21	£22,400
22–29	£29,800
30–39	£38,600
40–49	£42,100
50–59	£40,300
60+	£36,500

Pay typically peaks in the 40–49 bracket, then dips slightly as some workers move to part-time arrangements or lower-intensity roles in later career.

How to Use This Data

A benchmark is only useful if you compare it to your specific role, not the whole economy. A nurse, a software developer, and a retail supervisor all have different market rates — and the right question is how your pay compares to others doing the same job. Our nurse salary guide and teacher salary guide work through two professions that sit either side of the national median.

Use the Salary Scout role pages to look up median and percentile pay for hundreds of specific occupations, with regional breakdowns based on ASHE 2024 data.

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Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2024, published October 2024. Published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.