What Is a Good Salary in the UK?

The detail

There is no official definition of a "good" salary in the UK - it depends on where you live, whether you rent or own, and how many people the income supports. The most honest starting point is the median full-time salary, which the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings put at £39,039 in April 2025. Earning comfortably above that means you out-earn the typical UK full-time worker, so it is a reasonable floor for calling a salary "good".

The full-time pay ladder (ONS ASHE 2025) runs: median £39,039, mean £48,512 (the mean sits well above the median because a minority of very high earners pull the average up), 90th percentile £76,903, 95th percentile £99,387 and 99th percentile £186,840. So a salary above roughly £39,000 is above average; above about £77,000 puts you in the top 10% of full-time employees; and above about £99,000 in the top 5%.

A common cultural bar for a "good salary" is the £50,270 higher-rate tax threshold. Only around 18% of UK taxpayers pay the 40% higher rate (HMRC Income Tax liabilities statistics, 2025/26), so crossing £50,270 does put you in a clear minority of earners. The catch is that the £50,270 threshold is frozen until 2030/31, so fiscal drag pulls more people over it every year, and earnings above it are taxed at 40% plus 2% National Insurance.

People often ask whether a specific figure - "is £60k a good salary?" - counts. On the ASHE 2025 distribution, £60,000 is well above the £39,039 median and below the £76,903 top-10% mark, so it sits firmly in the upper part of the full-time distribution and into the higher-rate tax band. Whether it feels good in practice depends heavily on region and housing costs.

Regional variation is wide. Median full-time pay ranges from £49,692 in London down to £34,403 in the North East (ONS ASHE 2025), so a salary that is merely average in London can be well above the local median in the North East, and a headline figure buys very different amounts once London rent and travel are paid. To see what any salary leaves after Income Tax and National Insurance, use our salary calculator.