Your salary is determined by how much your employer is willing to pay you for your work, and this can be affected by a great many things.
For example, the job and industry play a huge role, and average salary tends to be lower when you are younger as you are more inexperienced. However, where you work can also influence how much you are paid.
The average salary is different in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – and there are also disparities within each country.
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We look at where in the UK average earnings are highest, and where wages have grown the most.
Where in Britain are people paid the most?
Earnings are typically highest in London, which may not be a surprise considering the capital is home to headquarters of some of Britain’s largest firms, as well as the UK’s stock market.
The average weekly earnings of a Londoner is £853, almost £100 more than the second-highest earning region, the South East, and almost £200 more than the lowest-earning region, the North East, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
When multiplying this figure by 52, we can see that the average Londoner has an average yearly earnings of around £44,356, almost £10,000 more than the national average.
There are several reasons for this. London is one of the most important cities for finance, and so droves of wealthy bankers, financiers, and businesspeople are based there.
Additionally, because there is such high demand to live in London, prices tend to be much higher. In particular, rent and house prices in London can be incredibly dear.
The high cost of living means some companies give London-based employees a ‘London-weighting’, boosting their salaries.
The South East is the second-highest earning region of the UK, with the average in this region likely higher due to its proximity to London – many workers commute into the capital for work.
The South East also has a number of its own significant cities like Brighton, Oxford, Southampton and many more. The average worker in this region earns £779 a week, or £40,508 a year.
The story is similar for the East of England, the third-highest earning region in the UK. Workers here are paid an average of £764 a week, or £39,728 a year.
Transport links between the East of England and London mean that it isn’t too long a commute to get to the capital, while it also has many of its own prosperous cities.
A chart can be seen below showing each UK region and how much average earnings are there.
The UK regions where people are paid the least
When looking at average earnings data, you can see that there is a significant divide between earnings in the south of England and the north.
The lowest-earning region of England is the North East where the average worker is paid around £661 a week, or £34,372 a year – around £10,000 less than the average salary for a Londoner.
Meanwhile, the second-lowest earning region is Northern Ireland, where average earnings are slightly above those in the North East, at £671, or £34,892.
The third-lowest earning region is Yorkshire and the Humber, where average earnings are just £675 a week, or £35,100 a year.
Following this, every other northern region and Wales lag behind every southern region in terms of average earnings.
The only outlier here is Scotland, where the average earnings are the fourth-highest in the country, just behind London, the south east, and the east of England. The average Scot earns £740 a week, or £38,480.
Where in the UK have wages grown the most?
While it may be unsurprising that London and the South East lead the pack as the places in Britain where people are paid the most, the places where wage growth is fastest paint a different picture.
Far from being at the top, London is actually one of the UK regions where pay is growing the slowest, having only grown by 0.8% year-on-year, well below the level of inflation in the same time period.
This means that workers in London have actually seen their pay cut in real-terms as prices increase faster than wages, according to Employment Hero’s June Jobs Report, which analysed data from 105,000 employees in small and medium-sized businesses.
In stark contrast to this, workers in the north of England (including the North East, North West, and Yorkshire) have seen their pay packets grow by 11.1% on average over the last 12 months, far outpacing wage growth in the capital.
Workers in the Midlands have also enjoyed their share of wage growth, as their average pay packets have grown by 9.4% since last year.
Kevin Fitzgerald, UK managing director of Employment Hero, said it is “encouraging to see momentum building across the North and Midlands, regions that have been hugely impacted by the cost of living crunch.”
“This uplift will be a welcome sign for workers and for SMEs as it points to growing confidence and a more resilient period ahead. The focus now must be on sustained support from the Government to help ensure this positive trend continues,” he added.
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