Occupations with the biggest wage increases since 2021 revealed | Personal Finance | Finance

Since 2021 the average wages of Publicans and managers of licensed premises saw the highest percentage increase compared to other professions, new research reveals.

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HR and payroll software provider Ciphr found that just 90 job roles (26 percent of those with data available) reported strong salary growth of 16.2 percent or more.

Analysis of the most recent figures for average median hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time occupations in 2021, 2022 and 2023, from the Office of National Statistics, found that some (10 percent) of occupations even saw hourly pay rise over 30 percent.

This is significantly higher than the average median raise awarded to a typical full-time UK employee since 2021, a more modest 11.8 percent pay bump.

This is the average pay increase for the median or ‘middle’ employee, so millions of workers will earn less than this amount, just as millions will earn more.

Around three-quarters (74 percent) of the 90 job roles where hourly pay growth has outpaced cumulative inflation since 2021, still pay below the UK’s average hourly rate of £17.40 (excluding overtime).

Jobs with the biggest pay cuts

Only 26 percent of full-time jobs in the UK saw above-inflation wage increases between 2021 and 2023. Three-quarters (74 percent) of full-time occupations actually saw a drop in real-terms pay in 2023.

Their salary increases since 2021, if any, came in below cumulative inflation (of 16.2 percent).

Occupational groups that fared among the worst with salary increases, on average, since 2021 (based on ONS figures) are clinical psychologists (-22 percent); cyber security professionals (-14 percent), other education professionals, including university administrators and bursars (-9.4 percent), legal professionals, including legal advisers, notaries and paralegals (-8.8 percent); electronics engineers (-7.2 percent); generalist medical practitioners, including GPs and hospital doctors (-6.7 percent); arts officers, producers and directors (-2.9 percent); and taxation experts (-1 percent).

Ciphr compared the median pay growth of over 350 occupations in the UK to identify all the full-time jobs with wages that have outpaced cumulative inflation, and those whose salary has fallen behind cumulative inflation since 2021.

Between April 2021 and April 2023, UK inflation averaged 7.8 percent a year – a cumulative increase of 16.2 percent. Just one in four (26 percent) full-time job roles saw their hourly earnings grow at a faster rate

A salary checker to see how your job pays compared to the UK average, is available here.