What is a good salary in the UK?
Published 2026-08-29, checked against current rates 2026-08-28.
A good salary in the UK is easier to answer with data than with opinion. HMRC publishes the income of every UK taxpayer at each percentile point, and on the most recent figures (Survey of Personal Incomes 2023/24, published April 2026) the median taxpayer income is £29,700. Earning £67,400 puts you in the top 10% of taxpayers, and £207,000 puts you in the top 1%. So £50,000, the salary people most often ask about, sits at roughly the 80th percentile: better paid than about 80 taxpayers in every hundred. What it leaves you is a separate question, because tax rises faster than pay: on 2026/27 rates £50,000 takes home £3,293 a month, which is 79% of the headline figure. Checked 2026-08-28.
Enter any salary and see exactly where it sits among UK taxpayers, plus what it takes home each month.
Rank your own salaryWhere does each salary actually rank?
The percentile column answers “how many people earn less than this”. The take-home column answers “what arrives”. Both matter, and they move at different speeds.
| Salary | Percentile | Beats | Take-home a month | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | 37th | 37% of taxpayers | £1,793 | 86% |
| £30,000 | 50th | 50% of taxpayers | £2,093 | 84% |
| £35,000 | 61th | 61% of taxpayers | £2,393 | 82% |
| £45,000 | 75th | 75% of taxpayers | £2,993 | 80% |
| £50,000 | 80th | 80% of taxpayers | £3,293 | 79% |
| £60,000 | 87th | 87% of taxpayers | £3,780 | 76% |
| £80,000 | 93th | 93% of taxpayers | £4,746 | 71% |
| £100,000 | 95th | 95% of taxpayers | £5,713 | 69% |
Is £30,000 a good salary?
It is very close to the middle. At the 50th percentile, £30,000is a genuinely typical UK salary rather than a low one, and it takes home £2,093 a month. For comparison, an NHS Band 5 nurse starts at £32,073. Whether it is comfortable depends almost entirely on housing costs, which the national distribution cannot tell you.
Is £50,000 a good salary?
Yes, by any statistical measure: the 80th percentile, and close to the point where the higher rate of income tax begins (£50,270 in 2026/27). It is also where the marginal rate steps up sharply, so pay rises past this point feel noticeably weaker. The pay rise calculator shows how much of the next raise survives.
Is £80,000 a good salary?
It is the 93th percentile, comfortably inside the top 5% of taxpayers, and takes home £4,746 a month. It is also close to the zone where the system turns strange: from £100,000 the personal allowance is withdrawn and the effective rate on the next pound reaches 60%, which the £100k trap calculator quantifies. Families lose Child Benefit between £60,000 and £80,000 as well, so household take-home can rise very slowly across this stretch.
What the numbers do not tell you
Percentile figures are misleading if you read them without these three caveats.
- The data covers taxpayers only. People earning below the tax threshold are not in it at all, so every rank here flatters you slightly compared with the full adult population.
- It measures total income. The HMRC figures include pensions, self-employment profit, property and savings income, not just employment.
- The distribution is UK-wide. The same salary buys very different lives in London and in the north east, and if you work in Scotland the tax you pay on it differs too.
A better question than “is this good?”
Ask what the offer leaves you each month after tax, pension and any student loan, and compare that against your actual costs. A £60,000 job with a generous pension and no commute can leave you better off than a £70,000 one without. The salary comparison calculator puts two offers side by side on a net basis, and the statistics page holds the full distribution if you want to see the whole curve rather than a few points on it.
Sources
- HMRC Survey of Personal Incomes: percentile points, 2023/24
- HMRC: rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
- NHS Employers: Agenda for Change pay scales 2026/27
Every figure on this page is computed from those tables at build time, checked 2026-08-28. If a number here ever disagrees with gov.uk, gov.uk is right and this is a bug worth telling us about. See our corrections policy.
Related guides
Gross pay vs net pay: what the difference is
The offer letter figure and the bank figure are never the same number. What comes out in between, and in what order.
Scottish income tax vs England compared
Six bands against three. The salary where Scotland becomes more expensive, and the exact difference at each level.
All 10 guides are listed on the guides index, and every calculator on the home page.