Graphic Designer Salary 2026/27: Employed + Freelance Take-Home
ONS classifies graphic designers as SOC 2020 unit group 2142, "Graphic and multimedia designers". Their full-time median was £32,510 in ASHE 2025, with a quarter of the group below £26,854 and a quarter above £40,000. ASHE surveys employee jobs only, so freelance designers are outside these figures.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £32,510
- ASHE 2025, 10th to 75th percentile
- £24,433–£40,000
- Take-home at median
- £26,927 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn 17% below the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you between the 25th percentile (£29,262) and the 50th percentile (£39,039) of UK full-time earnings.
What influences graphic designer pay
Design pay is set employer by employer, so this page anchors on the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. For SOC 2020 2142, the April 2025 full-time median was £32,510, with the 10th percentile at £24,433, the lower quartile at £26,854 and the upper quartile at £40,000. ONS did not publish a reliable 90th percentile, and the table does not split the group by sector, specialism or region.
The whole of the published range is basic-rate pay outside Scotland: even the £40,000 upper quartile is below the £50,270 higher-rate threshold, so an employed designer in it pays 20% Income Tax and 8% National Insurance on pay above the £12,570 allowance.
A freelance designer pays Income Tax and Class 4 National Insurance on profits, at 6% between £12,570 and £50,270. Since 6 April 2024 no Class 2 is payable on profits above the £7,105 Small Profits Threshold, and the year still counts for State Pension; below it Class 2 can be paid voluntarily.
Career progression
- ASHE does not publish design pay by seniority. These are points in the April 2025 full-time pay distribution for SOC 2020 2142, employees only.
- 10th percentile: £24,433.
- Lower quartile: £26,854.
- Median: £32,510.
- Upper quartile: £40,000. ONS did not publish a reliable 90th percentile for the group.
Frequently asked questions
- What take-home should a graphic designer on the £32,510 median expect?
- With no pension contribution, take-home in England in 2026/27 is about £26,927 a year, or £2,244 a month, after £3,988 Income Tax and £1,595 National Insurance. With a 5% pension contribution by salary sacrifice it is about £25,756. At the £40,000 upper quartile, with no pension, it is about £32,320.
- Freelance vs employed for a graphic designer?
- On the same figure a freelancer pays slightly less tax: taxable profits of £32,510 leave about £27,326 after £3,988 Income Tax and £1,196 Class 4 National Insurance, against £26,927 for an employee on a £32,510 salary, because Class 4 is 6% where employee Class 1 is 8%. But profit is what is left after software, equipment and other costs, and a freelancer has no employer pension contribution, paid holiday or Statutory Sick Pay, so a day rate has to cover all of those before it matches a salary.