Methodology

Salary data

Base figures come from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which samples ~1% of all HMRC PAYE records and publishes gross weekly and annual earnings by SOC 2020 occupation code. We use the full-time employee distribution: 10th percentile (minimum), 25th percentile (lower quartile), 50th percentile (median), 75th percentile (upper quartile) and 90th percentile (maximum).

Regional adjustment

We apply a location multiplier to each job's national median to estimate city-level pay. The multiplier is derived from ONS regional median gross pay and validated against Reed and Indeed job-listing aggregate salaries. Example multipliers: London 1.28, Reading 1.12, Manchester 1.02, Newcastle 0.92.

Cost-of-living adjustment

"Cost-of-living adjusted salary" divides nominal pay by the local cost-of-living index (UK average = 100). This represents real purchasing power — useful when comparing offers across cities where a higher nominal salary may not translate to better disposable income.

Take-home pay

Take-home calculations use 2024/25 UK tax-year thresholds (6 Apr 2024 – 5 Apr 2025): personal allowance £12,570 (tapered above £100,000), basic rate 20% to £50,270, higher rate 40% to £125,140, additional rate 45% above. Class 1 employee NI: 8% on £12,570–£50,270, 2% above. Student loan plans 1/2/4/5 and postgraduate are supported. Pension contributions are modelled as salary sacrifice (reduce taxable income before tax and NI).

Company pages

ONS ASHE does not publish company-level pay data, so figures on individual company pages (average salary and salary-by-role tables) are modelled estimates: each role median starts from the ONS occupational median for that job, then applies an adjustment based on the company's publicly reported average pay and sector. They are indicative bands, not company-reported or ONS-sourced figures, and should not be read as exact.

Job-market data

Live listings (where shown) come from the Reed Jobseeker API, cached daily. Active-listing estimates (on pages without a live fetch) scale with city population and the occupation growth outlook.

Update frequency

Salary base figures are refreshed annually when ONS ASHE publishes new data (typically late October). Tax-year rates are updated each April. Reed listings are refreshed daily.