Local Salary Reality Checker

Search by job title in the dropdown. If your exact title isn't listed, pick the closest 4-digit parent code — HMRC does the same.

We use postcodes.io to get your region (London, North East, Scotland, etc.). Regional multipliers calibrated from ASHE 2025.

Before tax. For part-time, enter what you actually earn — we handle FTE conversion internally.

Years of experience loads the expected-salary calculation (0.82× at 0-2y, 1.32× at 21+y). Pattern drives FTE adjustment.

Private, public, charity or self-employed. Each has a different median premium applied to the expected salary.

Percentile tells you where you sit in the distribution. Gap vs median and vs expected tell you the £ amount of any shortfall. Use the distribution chart in your next pay review.

The ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is a 1% sample of all UK employees (~180,000 employees annually) drawn from HMRC PAYE records. It's compulsory for employers to respond, so coverage is exceptional. Pay is measured for the pay period including 22 April 2025 — grossed up to annual. Unlike Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and recruiter data (all self-reported, voluntary, biased towards higher earners), ASHE is statistically representative of the entire employed population. It's the dataset HM Treasury, the Low Pay Commission and the Office for Budget Responsibility all use.

Our regional multipliers come from ASHE 2025 regional medians divided by the UK median (£37,430). London is 1.32× (£49,400), South East 1.12× (£41,900), North East 0.86× (£32,200), Wales 0.88× (£32,900). But these are aggregate across all occupations. For highly-skilled occupations (SOC 2xxx professional), the London premium can be 1.4-1.5×. For lower-skilled occupations (SOC 7xxx-9xxx), regional differences narrow to 1.05-1.10× because minimum wage rates (£12.21/hour in 2025) compress the lower end of the distribution.

ASHE percentiles are averaged across all workers in an occupation × region. The 2025 ONS Gender Pay Gap report shows a 7.0% median gap across all UK full-time workers (men above women). Ethnicity pay gaps range from +6% (Chinese/Indian backgrounds) to -17% (Pakistani/Bangladeshi) vs White British median. If you're from a group with a known structural pay gap, your ASHE percentile may understate the true extent of any underpayment — it's averaged against a dataset that already includes the gap. For precise ethnicity-adjusted benchmarks, check the ONS Ethnicity Pay Gaps 2025 dataset.

ASHE under-represents zero-hours workers (they might not have a single reference pay period) and excludes self-employed gig workers entirely. 2025 ONS estimates put zero-hours contracts at ~1.2 million (3.5% of employed workforce). If you're on zero-hours, our 0.5 FTE multiplier is a reasonable average but pay variability is enormous — median gross hourly for zero-hours is £11.80 vs £15.90 for permanent staff. For platform workers (Uber, Deliveroo, Care Platform), use your annualised actual earnings over 12 months as your salary figure.

Strongest approach: open with market data ("ASHE 2025 shows the regional median for my role is £X. I'm currently at £Y, which is the Zth percentile."), then shift to value ("In the last 12 months I delivered A, B, C."), then specific ask ("I'd like to move to £X by the end of Q3."). Weakest: "I think I'm worth more." Middle ground: "I've had another offer at £Z" — this works but burns bridges if you don't actually have the offer. Our percentile data gives you factual anchoring without the bluff.