The amount of money that you earn from employment will typically change as you get older and gain more experience.
As you climb through the ranks and become more established in your career, your salary may increase, and so could your net worth.
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, published by the Office of National Statistics, shows, particularly in the first half of your working life, earnings tend to rapidly increase with age.
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Finding out what the average salary for your age group could be a helpful way for you to evaluate your own pay and see whether your income is higher or lower than your peers.
That knowledge could help you start making better financial decisions to build your savings. We look at the average savings by age in a separate article.
The median salary for all employees in the UK is £31,602 a year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) latest data from 2024, but income tends to increase as people get older, with earnings peaking for people in their forties. For full-time employees, the median annual pay (gross) in the UK is £37,430.
Young people earn the least, with 16 to 17 year olds only earning a median of £3,829 a year thanks to a lower minimum wage and the type of jobs that younger people tend to work in.
Meanwhile, people in their forties earn the most, likely because by this point in life most people have established themselves in a career and will probably be awarded better pay.
However, the data shows salaries start to fall once again when employees are in their fifties.
The reason for this decline could be a number of things, such as employees starting to work fewer hours as they edge closer to retirement, leaving work due to health issues, or perhaps even retiring early.
The lower salaries for people in their sixties could also be because of the same factors, but a higher number of people in this decade of life will also be starting to retire.
The age at which you can currently start receiving the state pension is 66, though this is gradually increasing, so many people in the tail end of their sixties will have left the labour market and will be relying on private and state pension income, which is typically lower than a working salary.
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Median annual pay (gross) for all employees
Description
Median
All employees
£31,602
16-17b
£3,829
18-21
£12,698
22-29
£28,918
30-39
£34,563
40-49
£36,122
50-59
£33,073
60+
£25,542
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Median annual pay (gross) for full-time employees
Age
Median
All employees
£37,430
18-21
£22,001
22-29
£31,200
30-39
£38,961
40-49
£42,154
50-59
£39,699
60+
£35,000
Source: Office for National Statistics, Earnings and hours worked, age group: ASHE Table 6
Average earnings by age
There is a difference between your salary and your earnings. Salaries tend to be provided in yearly figures, while earnings tend to be provided in weekly figures.
This is because they measure slightly different things. Your salary tends to be your basic pay, the amount paid to an employee before extras are added or deducted.
Your earnings include your salary but also take into account bonuses on earned income, benefits in kind, or arrears of pay.
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Age
Median weekly earnings
16-17
£331
18-21
£470
22-29
£621
30-39
£769
40-49
£823
50+ / 50-59
£778
60+
£693
All age groups
£728
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, November 2024
The overall median weekly earnings in the UK is £728 a week, but, as can be seen above, income tends to increase as people get older.
Like average salaries, average earnings also peak for people in their forties.
The biggest step up in weekly earnings is between 22 to 29 year olds and 30 to 39 year olds, with a gap of £148 a week.
This is likely because a large influx of young people enter the labour market once they finish university at around 21 or 22 years old and will therefore be beginning their careers in entry-level positions with lower comparative pay.
Average earnings by region
The data from the ONS also divides average weekly earnings by region in the UK, and the findings are not surprising considering the country’s significant North/South divide.
The UK region with the highest median weekly earnings is London. Average earnings stand at £853 a week in the capital, blazing ahead of the rest of the country.
Salaries are typically higher in London as it is at the heart of many of the UK’s most profitable industries, including financial services.
The second highest-earning UK region is the South East, where the average resident earns £779 per week.
Meanwhile, the lowest-earning UK region is the North East, where the typical person will make just £661 a week – just under £200 less than their London peers.
The gender pay gap
Alongside large disparities appearing when looking at average earnings by age and region, there remains a gap between the median earnings of men and women.
Data from the ONS reveals that the average weekly earnings for all men is £709 while women only earn an average of £529 a week – a difference of £180.
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Description
Median weekly earnings
All employees
613
Men, all
709
Women, all
529
All full-time employees
728
Men, full-time
773
Women, full-time
672
All part-time employees
263
Men, part-time
241
Women, part-time
273
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, November 2024
When breaking this data down to full-time and part-time work, another stark divide can be found. A man working full-time tends to get paid an average of £773 a week compared to a woman’s £672.
For part-time work, however, the average woman gets paid slightly more than the average man. The ONS’ data shows that women in part-time positions earn an average of £273 a week, while a man working part-time tends to get paid £241 a week.
The reason that the average salary for women in part-time work is more than an average man’s is likely because a greater number of women work part-time than men, according to the House of Commons Library.
Furthermore, the reason the overall gender pay gap is larger than the differences between both full and part-time work is because part-time work pays significantly less than full-time work.
However, while the figures are still far from being equal, significant progress has been made to bridge this gap in the last few decades.
The average salary of a woman in 1997 was £194 (£370 adjusted for inflation), to a man’s £344 (£657 in 2024).
When adjusted for inflation, we can see that the average weekly earnings of men has increased by 10% from 1997 to 2024. Meanwhile, the weekly pay for the average woman has increased by more than three times that, with earnings increasing by 46% since 1997.
How have wages grown for different age groups?
As we have already seen, your salary typically increases as you get older, more experienced, and more senior in your workplace and profession.
Average wages have also continued to increase over the past twenty years, largely because of inflation.
However, this growth has not been distributed equally among the generations.
Data analysed by money.co.uk found that, when adjusted for inflation, younger generations have seen their wages grow at a much faster rate than older generations.
Workers aged 16 to 17 have seen their median weekly earnings increase by 18.53% in real terms over the past 20 years.
Much of this is owed to increases in the minimum wage that were implemented to improve the pay for entry-level positions. The minimum wage was also only implemented in 1999, so before this many young workers were paid much less.
This outsized wage growth can also be seen in the data for workers aged 18 to 21, whose wages grew by 12.56% over the last 20 years.
On the other end of the scale, the over 60s have seen their average wages increase 10.32% faster than inflation.
Experts at money.co.uk say that this could indicate an effort by businesses to retain highly-skilled workers, or could reflect the ability of these workers to better negotiate their salaries.
Furthermore, the change is likely also influenced by the increasing retirement age in the UK.
Meanwhile, workers aged between 22 and 49 have seen their wages not only stagnate, but actually decline in real terms over the last 20 years.
The most dramatic example of this can be seen in the data for the 30 to 39 year old age group where wages have fallen in real terms, meaning that the average 30 year old is 4.5% worse off than they would have been 20 years ago.
Experts at money.co.uk note that, as these ages make up the core of the UK workforce, this could reflect the greater economic challenges that businesses have faced recently, as well as greater job instability.
A full list of the changes to weekly earnings for different age groups over the past 20 years can be found below.
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Age group
20-year change in median weekly full-time wages, adjusted for inflation
16-17
+18.53%
18-21
+12.56%
22-29
-1.11%
30-39
-4.50%
40-49
-0.93%
50-59
2.74%
60+
10.32%
Source: money.co.uk
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Daniel is a digital journalist at Moneyweek and enjoys writing about personal finance, economics, and politics. He previously worked at The Economist in their Audience team.
Daniel studied History at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and specialised in the history of political thought. In his free time, he likes reading, listening to music, and cooking overambitious meals.
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