Average annual earnings for full-time employees in the UK 1999-2023

The median annual earnings for full-time employees in the United Kingdom was approximately 34,963 British pounds in 2023, compared with 33,061 pounds in the previous year. At the start of the provided time period, in 1999, the average full-time salary in the UK was 17,803 pounds per year, with median earnings exceeding 20,000 pounds per year in 2002, and 30,000 by 2019.

Inflation still outpacing wage growth in 2023

Since November 2021 in the UK, inflation has been higher than wage growth. In October 2022 for example, when the CPI inflation rate reached a 41-year-high of 11.1 percent, wages were growing much slower at 6.1 percent. Since that peak, inflation has remained persistently high, only dropping below double figures in April 2023, when inflation was 8.7 percent, down from 10.1 percent in the previous month. For 2023 as a whole, the average annual rate of inflation is forecast to be 6.1 percent, before falling to 0.9 percent in 2024.

The great recession casts a long shadow

  Although the average salary has generally grown at a consistent rate throughout this time period, when adjusted for inflation, workers in the United Kingdom are financially worse off than they were prior to the 2008 financial crisis. In 2017, UK workers in their 30s earned 7.2 percent less than people that age nine years earlier, compared with a decline of just 0.7 percent for people in their 60s. At the same time, the minimum wage for younger workers under the age of 18 has increased at a slower pace than that of older workers.