Are you paid less?

UK workers have a new official benchmark for comparing pay. The Office for National Statistics says median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees reached £811.20 in April 2026, up from £766.60 a year earlier.

Median means the middle of the pay distribution: half of full-time employee jobs paid less and half paid more. It is not a legal entitlement and it is not the arithmetic mean.

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Three headline figures

• £811.20 a week — median gross weekly full-time earnings;
• £20.81 an hour — median hourly earnings excluding overtime;
• £40,911 a year — median gross annual earnings for full-time employees who had been in the same job for at least a year.

Gross pay is the amount before Income Tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and other deductions. Do not compare it with the net amount that arrived in your bank account.

Did pay beat inflation?

Median weekly earnings for full-time employees rose by 5.8% over the year. After adjusting for inflation, the increase was 2.7%. For part-time employees, nominal growth was 2.9%, but real weekly earnings fell by 0.1%.

The 2026 estimates are provisional. The survey uses employer information covering about 197,000 employees and relates to the pay period containing 22 April 2026.

Where was growth strongest?

• London: median full-time weekly earnings grew by 8.2%, the highest rate among UK countries and regions;
• managers, directors and senior officials: up 6.7%;
• human health and social work: up 7.3%;
• public sector: £862.20 a week, up 6.5%;
• private sector: £794.40 a week, up 5.5%.

These changes are not pure pay rises. Results can also move when the mix of jobs and workers in the sample changes.

How to compare your pay

1. Use gross pay. Look for total pay before deductions on your payslip.
2. Match the period. Multiply monthly gross pay by 12 for an annual figure. Dividing annual salary by 52 gives an approximate weekly figure.
3. Check hours. The statistics normally define full-time as more than 30 paid hours a week, or at least 25 hours for teaching professions.
4. Match occupation and place. The official tables let you compare occupation, industry and workplace location. The £811.20 headline does not reflect differences between jobs and regions.
5. Separate a market benchmark from the law. Being below the median is not automatically unlawful. If your hourly pay may be below the legal minimum for your age or apprenticeship status, use the official government calculator.

How to use it in a pay discussion

Bring more than the national headline. Show your occupation, region, responsibilities, experience and measurable results. Ask your employer to compare your rate with the official median for the same type of job, rather than with a single figure for every UK worker.

Geographical scope: the headline figures cover the United Kingdom. Workplace regional figures cover the UK, while the detailed local authority map covers Great Britain.

Source: the Office for National Statistics release dated 22 October 2026. Checked on 25 October 2026.