Salary by job · SOC 8134
Water and sewerage plant operatives: £39,690 median, £32,096 after tax
Median full-time pay for water and sewerage plant operatives is £39,690 a year. After income tax and National Insurance that leaves £32,096, or £2,675 a month. The figure rests on 10 thousand full-time jobs in 2025 and is above the median for the occupations in this dataset by £3,827.
| Median gross | £39,690.00 |
| Income tax | −£5,424.00 |
| National Insurance | −£2,169.60 |
| Take-home | £32,096.40 |
| Per month | £2,674.70 |
The whole range, after tax
A median hides the spread, and the spread is usually what someone wants. These are the percentile points ONS published, each run through tax.
| Percentile | Gross | After tax | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20th | £29,197 | £24,541 | £2,045 |
| 25th | £31,577 | £26,255 | £2,188 |
| 30th | £34,768 | £28,553 | £2,379 |
| 40th | £38,443 | £31,199 | £2,600 |
| 60th | £41,226 | £33,202 | £2,767 |
| 70th | £44,740 | £35,732 | £2,978 |
| 75th | £46,183 | £36,771 | £3,064 |
Check your own figure
These are survey medians, not a pay scale — your own salary is the one that matters. Put it through the take-home pay calculator with your pension and student loan, see where it sits among all UK taxpayers with the salary percentile calculator, or compare two offers with the salary comparison calculator. If you work part time, the pro rata calculator scales a full-time figure like the ones above to your hours.
What is the average salary for water and sewerage plant operatives in the UK?
The median full-time salary is £39,690. ONS publishes the median rather than the mean because a handful of very high earners pull an average upwards and make it unrepresentative. Half of full-time water and sewerage plant operatives earn more than £39,690 and half earn less.
What is £39,690 after tax?
£32,096 a year, or £2,675 a month — after £5,424 income tax and £2,170 National Insurance, on a standard tax code with no pension or student loan.
What is the salary range for water and sewerage plant operatives?
ONS did not publish enough percentile points for this occupation to give a reliable range. The median of £39,690 rests on 10 thousand full-time jobs.
Is £39,690 a good salary in the UK?
It is £3,827 above the median across the occupations in this dataset, and puts someone on roughly the 68th percentile of all UK taxpayers. Whether that is good depends on where you live more than almost anything else.
Pay data: ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, released 2025-10-23. Source. Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Full-time employees only — ASHE's all-employee medians mix part-time pay in, which reads low for any part-time-heavy job. Tax computed on 2026/27 rates. Not tax advice.