What's the average age-based salary, and how does it compare?

To find out how much the average Brit makes at different stages of their life, we look at the average salary by age Are you earning more than your peers?

Generally speaking, as you age and acquire more experience, your income from work will vary.

In addition to your salary, your net worth may rise as you advance in your career and gain more experience.

Earnings tend to rise quickly with age, especially in the first half of your working life, according to the Office of National Statistics' Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

What is the average age-based salary?

To assess your own compensation and determine whether it is higher or lower than that of your peers, it may be useful to find out what the average salary for your age group is.

With that information, you may be able to start saving more money by making wiser financial choices. In a different piece, we examine average savings by age.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) most recent data from 2024, the median salary for all employees in the UK is 31,602 per year. However, as previously mentioned, income tends to rise with age, peaking for those in their forties. In the UK, full-time workers make an average of 37,430 per year (gross).

A lower minimum wage and the kinds of jobs that younger people typically work in result in the lowest incomes for young people, with 16 to 17-year-olds only making a median of £3,829 annually.

The highest income is earned by those in their forties, most likely because most people have established a career by this time and will likely receive higher compensation.

According to the data, however, wages begin to decline once more when workers reach their fifties.

This decline may be caused by a variety of factors, including employees beginning to work fewer hours as they get closer to retirement age, quitting their jobs because of health concerns, or possibly retiring early.

The same factors may also be responsible for the lower salaries of those in their sixties, but more people in this decade will also be beginning to retire.

Many people in their late sixties will have left the workforce and be dependent on private and state pension income, which is usually less than a working salary, as the state pension begins to be paid at age 66, though this is gradually rising.

Office for National Statistics, Annual Hours and Earnings Survey, November 2024.

There is yet another glaring difference when comparing full-time and part-time employment in this data. On average, a woman makes 672 per week while a man who works full-time makes 773.

However, women are paid marginally more than men for part-time work. According to ONS statistics, women who work part-time typically make £273 per week, whereas men who work part-time typically make £241.

According to the House of Commons library, the reason why women's average salaries for part-time work are higher than men's is probably because more women than men work part-time.

Furthermore, part-time employment pays substantially less than full-time employment, which explains why the overall gender pay gap is greater than the differences between full-time and part-time employment.

Significant strides have been made in the past few decades to close this gap, even though the numbers are still far from equal.

In 1997, women made an average of 194 (370, adjusted for inflation), while men made 344 (657 in 2024).

It is evident that, after accounting for inflation, men's average weekly wages have risen by 10% between 1997 and 2024. In contrast, the average woman's weekly income has more than tripled, with earnings rising by 46% since 1997.