Highest Paying Jobs UK 2026

The detail

ONS publishes median pay by 4-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC 2020) code annually. Among occupations with a robust sample size, the highest median full-time gross annual pay (ONS ASHE 2025 provisional, Table 14) is found in:

1) Chief executives and senior officials — £99,944; 2) Marketing, sales and advertising directors — £94,135; 3) Specialist medical practitioners — £92,847; 4) Information technology directors — £91,671; 5) Directors in logistics, warehousing and transport — £83,447; 6) Aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers — £82,746; 7) Financial managers and directors — £76,447; 8) Train and tram drivers — £76,327; 9) Functional managers and directors n.e.c. — £75,711; 10) Head teachers and principals — £72,192.

A few of these unit groups (logistics directors, aircraft pilots) are estimated from smaller ASHE samples, so their exact rank can move year to year. By contrast, several well-known professional roles sit lower on the median measure than people expect: solicitors and lawyers £56,977, chartered and certified accountants £50,062, and generalist medical practitioners (GPs and similar) £55,494 in the same ASHE 2025 release.

Note these are medians of full-time employee pay: half of the jobs in each group pay more and half pay less, and ASHE covers employees only, so partners, the self-employed and income from equity or profit shares are outside it. The median reflects the typical employee in the role, not the top of it.

Specialisation matters within each category too. "Specialist medical practitioners" spans hospital consultants across every specialty and grade, so a single median hides a wide spread.