UK wage growth vs inflation 2026| ��ƽ��

Average growth of weekly earnings in the United Kingdom compared with the CPI inflation rate from January 2015 to April 2026

Characteristic	Wage growth	CPI inflation rate
Apr 26	3.4%	2.8%
Mar 26	3.4%	3.3%
Feb 26	3.6%	3%
Jan 26	3.8%	3%
Dec 25	4.1%	3.4%
Nov 25	4.4%	3.2%
Oct 25	4.6%	3.6%
Sep 25	4.7%	3.8%
Aug 25	4.7%	3.8%
Jul 25	4.8%	3.8%
Jun 25	5%	3.6%
May 25	5%	3.4%
Apr 25	5.3%	3.5%
Mar 25	5.6%	2.6%
Feb 25	5.9%	2.8%
Jan 25	5.8%	3%
Dec 24	5.9%	2.5%
Nov 24	5.6%	2.6%
Oct 24	5.4%	2.3%
Sep 24	5.1%	1.7%
Aug 24	5.2%	2.2%
Jul 24	5.3%	2.2%
Jun 24	5.5%	2%
May 24	5.7%	2%
Apr 24	5.9%	2.3%
Mar 24	6%	3.2%
Feb 24	6%	3.4%
Jan 24	6.1%	4%
Dec 23	6.2%	4%
Nov 23	6.6%	3.9%
Oct 23	7.2%	4.6%
Sep 23	7.8%	6.7%
Aug 23	7.9%	6.7%
Jul 23	7.8%	6.8%
Jun 23	7.8%	7.9%
May 23	7.5%	8.7%
Apr 23	7.3%	8.7%
Mar 23	6.9%	10.1%
Feb 23	6.7%	10.4%
Jan 23	6.7%	10.1%
Dec 22	6.7%	10.5%
Nov 22	6.6%	10.7%
Oct 22	6.2%	11.1%
Sep 22	5.8%	10.1%
Aug 22	5.5%	9.9%
Jul 22	5.3%	10.1%
Jun 22	4.9%	9.4%
May 22	4.7%	9.1%
Apr 22	4.5%	9%
Mar 22	4.6%	7%
Feb 22	4.3%	6.2%
Jan 22	4.1%	5.5%
Dec 21	3.9%	5.4%
Nov 21	4%	5.1%
Oct 21	4.4%	4.2%
Sep 21	5.1%	3.1%
Aug 21	6%	3.2%
Jul 21	6.8%	2%
Jun 21	7.4%	2.5%
May 21	6.6%	2.1%
Apr 21	5.7%	1.5%
Mar 21	4.6%	0.7%
Feb 21	4.4%	0.4%
Jan 21	4.3%	0.7%
Dec 20	4%	0.6%
Nov 20	3.5%	0.3%
Oct 20	2.8%	0.7%
Sep 20	1.9%	0.5%
Aug 20	0.9%	0.2%
Jul 20	0.2%	1%
Jun 20	-0.2%	0.6%
May 20	0.7%	0.5%
Apr 20	1.7%	0.8%
Mar 20	2.7%	1.5%
Feb 20	2.9%	1.7%
Jan 20	3.1%	1.8%
Dec 19	3.2%	1.3%
Nov 19	3.3%	1.5%
Oct 19	3.5%	1.5%
Sep 19	3.6%	1.7%
Aug 19	3.8%	1.7%
Jul 19	3.9%	2.1%
Jun 19	3.9%	2%
May 19	3.6%	2%
Apr 19	3.4%	2.1%
Mar 19	3.4%	1.9%
Feb 19	3.4%	1.9%
Jan 19	3.5%	1.8%
Dec 18	3.4%	2.1%
Nov 18	3.3%	2.3%
Oct 18	3.3%	2.4%
Sep 18	3.2%	2.4%
Aug 18	3.1%	2.7%
Jul 18	2.9%	2.5%
Jun 18	2.7%	2.4%
May 18	2.8%	2.4%
Apr 18	2.9%	2.4%
Mar 18	2.9%	2.5%
Feb 18	2.8%	2.7%
Jan 18	2.6%	3%
Dec 17	2.4%	3%
Nov 17	2.3%	3.1%
Oct 17	2.3%	3%
Sep 17	2.2%	3%
Aug 17	2.1%	2.9%
Jul 17	2.2%	2.6%
Jun 17	2%	2.6%
May 17	2%	2.9%
Apr 17	1.8%	2.7%
Mar 17	1.8%	2.3%
Feb 17	2%	2.3%
Jan 17	2.3%	1.8%
Dec 16	2.5%	1.6%
Nov 16	2.6%	1.2%
Oct 16	2.5%	0.9%
Sep 16	2.4%	1%
Aug 16	2.3%	0.6%
Jul 16	2.2%	0.6%
Jun 16	2.3%	0.5%
May 16	2.2%	0.3%
Apr 16	2.3%	0.3%
Mar 16	2.3%	0.5%
Feb 16	2.2%	0.3%
Jan 16	2.2%	0.3%
Dec 15	1.9%	0.2%
Nov 15	1.8%	0.1%
Oct 15	2%	-0.1%
Sep 15	2.4%	-0.1%
Aug 15	2.7%	0%
Jul 15	2.8%	0.1%
Jun 15	2.7%	0%
May 15	2.7%	0.1%
Apr 15	2.6%	-0.1%
Mar 15	2.2%	0%
Feb 15	1.8%	0%
Jan 15	1.5%	0.3%

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Release date

June 2026

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Region

United Kingdom

Survey time period

January 2015 to April 2026

Supplementary notes

This statistic is using original data from the Office for National Statistics and includes copyright material from © Crown, licensed under the .

Time series data for both economic indicators is available from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

CPI annual rate:

Annual wage growth for regular pay (3-month average):

Citation formats

In the three months to April 2026, average weekly earnings in the United Kingdom grew by 3.4 percent. In the same month, the CPI inflation rate was 2.8percent, indicating that wages were rising slightly faster than prices that month.

Average salaries in the UK

In 2025, the average salary for full-time workers in the UK was just over 39,000 British pounds a year, up from 37,500 in the previous year. For London, the average annual salary was far higher than the rest of the country, at almost 50,000 pounds per year, compared with just 34,400 in North East England. There also still exists a noticeable gender pay gap in the UK, which was almost seven percent for full-time workers in 2025, down from 17.4 percent in 1997. Lastly, the monthly earnings of the top one percent in the UK was 16,212 pounds as of September 2025, far higher than even that of the average for the top ten percent, who earned 5,784 pounds per month, while pay for the lowest 10 percent of earners was just 855 pounds per month.

Waves of industrial action in the UK

One of the main consequences of high inflation and low wage growth throughout 2022 and 2023 was an increase in industrial action in the UK. In December 2022, for example, there were approximately 830,000 working days lost due to labor disputes. Throughout this month, workers across various industry sectors were involved in industrial disputes, such as nurses, train drivers, and driving instructors. Many of the workers who took part in strikes were part of the UK's public sector, which saw far weaker wage growth than that of the private sector throughout 2022. Widespread industrial action continued into 2023, with approximately 303,000 workers involved in industrial disputes in March 2023. There was far less industrial action by 2024, however, due to settlements in many of the disputes, although some are ongoing as of 2025.