UK Salary Percentile 2026/27: Where Does Your Pay Rank?
A £35,000 salary sits close to the UK median in 2026/27, while £60,000 puts you in the top 20% of earners and £100,000 in the top 4%. Here is how salary percentiles work and where common salaries rank.
Why percentile beats "average"
When people ask "am I paid above average", they usually mean something closer to "am I paid more than a typical person". The trouble is that the mean (average) salary is distorted by a small number of very high earners. If you take 100 employees and 99 of them earn £30,000 while one earns £3,000,000, the mean salary across the group is roughly £60,000 — even though 99% of the group earns half that.
Percentile solves this by ranking every salary from lowest to highest and telling you where a specific figure falls in that order. The 50th percentile (the median) is the salary where exactly half of people earn more and half earn less. This is a far more honest way to answer "is my salary normal".
UK Salary Percentile Calculator
See where your salary ranks among UK workers — are you above or below the median?
Open Salary Percentile calculatorEstimated UK salary percentile table, 2026/27
Based on ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) trends and HMRC Survey of Personal Incomes data, projected forward with average earnings growth:
| Percentile | Approximate gross annual salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | ~£19,000-£20,500 |
| 25th percentile | ~£25,000-£26,500 |
| 50th percentile (median) | ~£35,000-£36,000 |
| 75th percentile | ~£48,000-£50,000 |
| 90th percentile | ~£65,000-£70,000 |
| 95th percentile | ~£85,000-£95,000 |
| 99th percentile | ~£180,000-£200,000 |
These figures are estimates derived from published distribution trends rather than an exact, current-year release, since official percentile breakdowns are typically published with a lag. Use them as a guide to relative position rather than a precise cut-off.
Worked example 1: is £45,000 a good salary?
A gross salary of £45,000 sits comfortably above the estimated median (£35,000-£36,000) but below the 75th percentile (£48,000-£50,000). This means roughly 60-65% of full-time UK employees earn less than £45,000, and roughly 35-40% earn more. On a national basis, £45,000 represents solidly above-average pay — though in London, where median full-time pay runs well above the national figure, £45,000 is closer to the middle of the local distribution.
Worked example 2: £60,000 and the top-20% line
A gross salary of £60,000 sits close to the 85th-88th percentile of UK full-time earners — comfortably inside the top 20%, and closing in on the top 10% (~£65,000-£70,000). At this level, take-home pay reflects a meaningful chunk of higher-rate tax: £9,730 of income above the £50,270 threshold is taxed at 40%, so the gross percentile overstates the equivalent net-pay percentile slightly.
Take-Home Pay Calculator
Calculate your net salary after income tax, National Insurance and student loan deductions.
Open Take-Home Pay calculatorWorked example 3: £100,000 and the Personal Allowance taper
A gross salary of £100,000 sits at approximately the 95th-96th percentile — the top 4-5% of full-time earners. It also triggers the Personal Allowance taper: for every £2 earned above £100,000, £1 of the £12,570 tax-free allowance is withdrawn, creating an effective 60% marginal tax rate between £100,000 and £125,140. Someone at this percentile is disproportionately affected by this specific quirk of the tax system, since it applies to a narrow band that captures a meaningful share of upper-middle earners without reaching the very top of the distribution.
How percentile differs by region
National percentile figures obscure large regional gaps. London median full-time pay has consistently run 20-30% above the UK-wide median, while the North East, Wales and Northern Ireland typically sit below the national median. A £40,000 salary might sit close to the median in London, but land at the 65th-70th percentile in most of the rest of the UK. If you want to know how you compare to people around you rather than to the whole country, regional percentile data (published within ASHE) is more useful than the national figures.
How percentile differs by age
Earnings in the UK typically rise through a worker's 20s and 30s, peak somewhere in the 40s, and often plateau or decline slightly approaching retirement age. A 24-year-old earning £28,000 might be below the all-ages median but at or above the median for their specific age band. Age-banded percentile data is the fairer comparison for anyone early or late in their career.
Frequently asked practical questions
If you are trying to work out whether to ask for a pay rise, percentile data is a useful starting point but works best alongside occupation-specific and region-specific benchmarks (from sites that specialise in role-based salary surveys), since a "top 10%" salary in a low-paying sector may still be below median for a specialist, high-demand role in the same region.
Use the salary percentile calculator to see where your own gross salary ranks against the latest UK distribution, and the take-home pay calculator to see what that salary means after 2026/27 income tax and National Insurance.
Frequently asked questions
What salary puts you in the top 10% in the UK?
Based on ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) trends projected to 2026/27, gross annual pay of roughly £65,000-£70,000 for full-time employees places you in the top 10% of UK earners. This threshold moves each year with average earnings growth, but has consistently sat in this range since 2023.
What is the median UK salary in 2026/27?
The median full-time UK salary is estimated at approximately £35,000-£36,000 gross per year in 2026/27, based on ONS ASHE data trends. Half of full-time employees earn more than this, and half earn less. The mean (average) salary is higher, at roughly £42,000-£44,000, because a small number of very high earners pull the average up.
Why is the median salary a better measure than the average?
The average (mean) salary is skewed upward by a relatively small number of very high earners — company directors, senior bankers, top barristers — whose enormous salaries pull the mean well above what a typical worker earns. The median is the middle value: exactly half of earners are above it and half below. For understanding 'is my salary normal', the median is almost always the more honest benchmark.
What percentile is a £50,000 salary in the UK?
A £50,000 gross salary sits at approximately the 75th-78th percentile of full-time UK earners in 2026/27 — meaning roughly 3 in 4 full-time employees earn less than this. It also happens to sit almost exactly at the £50,270 higher-rate income tax threshold, which is not a coincidence: policymakers have historically set the higher-rate threshold close to this level of the earnings distribution.
What salary is in the top 1% in the UK?
The top 1% of UK earners need gross income of approximately £180,000-£200,000 per year in 2026/27, based on HMRC Survey of Personal Incomes trends. This is a much higher bar than most people assume — the top 5% threshold is closer to £100,000-£110,000, illustrating how concentrated income is at the very top of the distribution.
Does salary percentile differ by region and age?
Yes, significantly. London salaries run 20-30% higher than the UK average across most occupations, so a £45,000 salary might be roughly average in London but comfortably above average in the North East or Wales. Age matters too — earnings typically peak between ages 40 and 50, so a 25-year-old earning £30,000 is likely to be paid closer to the median for their age group than the raw national percentile suggests.
Is £30,000 a good salary in the UK in 2026/27?
£30,000 is below the estimated national median of roughly £35,000-£36,000, placing it at approximately the 35th-40th percentile of full-time earners. It is a reasonable entry to mid-level salary for many roles and regions outside London, though it does not stretch far in London or the South East, where cost of living is materially higher.
How does gender affect salary percentiles?
ONS data has consistently shown a gender pay gap for full-time employees, though it has narrowed over the past decade. Median full-time pay for women has typically run several percentage points below median full-time pay for men, meaning the percentile a given salary represents can differ between genders — a salary that is above median for women may be closer to median for men.
How is salary percentile different from take-home pay percentile?
Salary percentile is normally quoted using gross pay before tax and National Insurance. Because the UK tax system is progressive — higher earners pay a larger share of income in tax — take-home pay is compressed compared with gross pay. Someone in the top 10% of gross earners keeps proportionally less of each additional pound than someone at the median, so their net pay percentile is slightly lower than their gross pay percentile.
Where can I check the exact percentile for my salary?
ONS publishes the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) each year with detailed percentile breakdowns by full-time/part-time status, region, occupation and gender. HMRC's Survey of Personal Incomes provides percentile data based on tax records, which better captures very high earners and the self-employed. CalcHub's salary percentile calculator applies the latest published distribution to your own gross salary.
Try the calculators
UK Salary Percentile Calculator
See where your salary ranks among UK workers — are you above or below the median?
Take-Home Pay Calculator
Calculate your net salary after income tax, National Insurance and student loan deductions.
Salary Converter
Convert between hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and annual salary.
Related reading
UK Salary Percentiles: Where Does Your Pay Actually Rank in 2026/27?
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£51,000 After Tax UK 2026/27 — Take-Home Pay Breakdown
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