Financial Analyst Salary 2026/27: What You Take Home
Financial analysts earn a full-time median of £50,330 (ONS ASHE 2025, SOC 2020 2422), with the middle half between £36,872 and £70,665. The median sits almost exactly on the £50,270 higher-rate threshold: with no pension contribution only £60 of it is taxed at 40%, and any pension contribution of that much or more removes it.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £50,330
- ASHE 2025, 25th to 75th percentile
- £36,872–£70,665
- Take-home at median
- £39,749 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn about 29% above the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you between the 50th percentile (£39,039) and the 75th percentile (£54,009) of UK full-time earnings.
What influences financial analyst pay
The ONS ASHE 2025 full-time median for finance and investment analysts and advisers was £50,330 (provisional, Table 14.7a Annual pay Gross, SOC 2020 code 2422), with a 10th-to-75th percentile range of £28,442 to £70,665. The group spans corporate FP&A analysts, investment and equity analysts and investment advisers, so where a job sits depends on sub-sector and seniority, which ONS does not split out.
ASHE annual gross pay includes the bonus and incentive payments employees actually received in the year, so bonuses are already inside the median and percentiles above. How large bonuses are in a particular firm or sub-sector is not published in any official series.
Because the median £50,330 sits right on the £50,270 higher-rate threshold, tax is finely balanced. Pay up to £50,270 is taxed at 20% with 8% NI; anything above is 40% Income Tax and 2% NI. A performance bonus that lifts taxable pay over £50,270 is taxed at 40% on the excess, and pay above £100,000 starts losing the personal allowance, creating a 60% Income Tax band to £125,140.
Career progression
- ASHE does not publish analyst pay by seniority. These are points in the April 2025 full-time pay distribution for SOC 2020 2422.
- 10th percentile: £28,442.
- Lower quartile: £36,872.
- Median: £50,330.
- Upper quartile: £70,665.
- Progression into portfolio management, FP&A leadership or corporate finance.
Frequently asked questions
- What is take-home for a £50,330 financial analyst?
- With no pension contribution, take-home in England is about £39,749 a year, with £60 taxed at 40%. With a 5% pension contribution by salary sacrifice it is about £37,945, and none of it is taxed at 40%: taxable pay falls to about £47,814. A net pay or relief-at-source contribution of the same size also clears the slice.
- Is bonus included in the ONS financial analyst figures?
- Yes. ASHE annual gross pay counts everything an employee was paid in the year, bonuses and incentive pay included, so the £50,330 median already reflects bonuses actually paid. What ONS does not publish is how large bonuses are in a particular firm or sub-sector.
- Is a financial analyst the same as an accountant?
- They overlap but differ in focus. Accountants (ACA/ACCA/CIMA) prepare and audit statutory accounts and reporting; financial analysts focus on forecasting, valuation, investment appraisal and performance analysis. Many analysts hold an accounting qualification or the CFA, and the two career paths often cross over into finance-manager and finance-director roles.