Salaries · United Kingdom · East of England
Average salary in East of England
Full-time employees working in the East of England earn a median of £40,531 a year (ONS ASHE 2026, provisional), 1% below the UK median of £40,911 and the 4th highest of the 12 UK nations and regions. That is up 4.5% on a year earlier. Full-time workers who live in the East of England earn a median of £43,254, 7% more than jobs located there pay: many residents commute to better-paid work elsewhere.
By Dominic Roworth · ONS ASHE 2026 data, checked 31 October 2026
Pay in East of England: the key figures
Full-time, before tax, year to April 2026.
| Jobs in East of England | People living in East of England | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median pay | £40,531 | £43,254 | £40,911 |
| Average (mean) pay | £49,212 | £55,239 | £52,109 |
| Lowest-paid 10% earn under | £25,308 | £25,848 | £25,288 |
| Lowest-paid 25% earn under | £30,636 | £31,816 | £30,600 |
| Highest-paid 25% earn over | £55,506 | £61,521 | £56,842 |
| Highest-paid 10% earn over | £79,895 | £89,795 | £82,680 |
| Median a week | £804.30 | £858.30 | £811.20 |
| Median an hour | £20.40 | £21.90 | £20.90 |
| Full-time employee jobs (indicative) | 1,536,000 | 1,770,000 | 18,184,000 |
ONS counts jobs, not people.
Take-home pay on the median
On £40,531, a full-time employee keeps about £32,702 a year (£2,725 a month) after income tax and National Insurance, with the standard tax code, no student loan and no pension contributions.
What drives pay in the East of England
The East of England has two medians. Jobs located here pay £40,531, just under the UK figure, but people who live here earn £43,254, 5.7% above the UK and third highest of the 12 nations and regions after London and the South East. The gap comes from commuting: ASHE counts 1.77 million full-time jobs held by the region's residents but only 1.54 million located in it, while London has 834,000 more jobs than working residents. It is widest at the top, where the best-paid tenth of residents start at £89,795, against £79,895 for the best-paid tenth of jobs.
Districts near London show it most. North Hertfordshire's residents earn £53,327 against £38,421 for jobs there, and Brentwood's £58,540 against £43,630.
For jobs, Hertfordshire and Cambridge lead: Three Rivers (£54,487), Welwyn Hatfield (£50,061), Cambridge (£49,340) and Stevenage (£49,206) top the workplace table. In Cambridge, education, which includes the university, provides a fifth of jobs and professional, scientific and technical work another 19.2%, more than twice the British share of each (ONS, 2024). Stevenage has 12.7% of its jobs in manufacturing. Across the region, construction is 9.0% of output against 5.9% for the UK, the highest share of the 12. Rural and coastal districts sit at the bottom: North Norfolk, Babergh, Fenland and Tendring have the lowest workplace medians.
What is changing: residents' pay rose 5.3% in 2026 against 4.5% for jobs in the region, so the gap widened. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough grew 2.7% in real terms in 2024, faster than any other combined authority area, but the region as a whole grew 0.9% and its real output per person fell 0.4%, the biggest fall of the 12.
Pay by council
Across the East of England's 45 council areas, jobs pay most in Three Rivers (£54,487) and least in North Norfolk (£33,888). Any town or village: local pay lookup.
| Council | Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three Rivers | £54,487 | £48,142 | +6.5% |
| Welwyn Hatfield | £50,061 | £48,570 | +4.4% |
| Cambridge | £49,340 | £46,984 | +6.1% |
| Stevenage | £49,206 | £43,626 | +6.4% |
| South Cambridgeshire | £47,883 | £50,418 | +4.2% |
| Brentwood | £43,630 | £58,540 | +11.6% |
| St Albans | £43,175 | £60,777* | +4.3% |
| East Hertfordshire | £42,650 | £51,864 | -2.3% |
| Watford | £42,317 | £46,205 | +6.0% |
| Hertsmere | £41,574* | £45,320* | -7.5% |
| Mid Suffolk | £41,435 | £44,061 | +4.3% |
| Thurrock | £41,252 | £44,544 | +0.5% |
| Chelmsford | £41,186 | £46,633 | +7.4% |
| Bedford | £41,088 | £44,746 | +6.9% |
| Dacorum | £40,775 | £47,958 | +8.0% |
| Basildon | £40,416* | £44,312 | +7.5% |
| Broxbourne | £40,114* | £45,895 | -2.7% |
| Luton | £39,689 | £34,641 | +5.1% |
| Great Yarmouth | £39,421 | £36,104* | +18.2% |
| Harlow | £39,277 | £37,622 | +3.4% |
| Uttlesford | £39,058 | £50,614* | -1.0% |
| Huntingdonshire | £39,006 | £42,491 | +4.4% |
| Ipswich | £38,915 | £38,228 | +7.0% |
| Braintree | £38,852 | £43,173 | -0.7% |
| Peterborough | £38,531 | £36,738 | +7.8% |
| West Suffolk | £38,519 | £40,882 | +4.2% |
| North Hertfordshire | £38,421 | £53,327 | -11.3% |
| Central Bedfordshire | £38,060 | £45,592 | +0.9% |
| East Suffolk | £37,938 | £39,231 | +2.6% |
| Broadland | £37,848 | £39,968 | +0.6% |
| Castle Point | £37,701* | £43,710 | +4.5% |
| King's Lynn and West Norfolk | £37,692 | £37,476 | +2.7% |
| South Norfolk | £37,690 | £41,124 | -0.1% |
| Southend-on-Sea | £37,457 | £43,468 | +15.4% |
| Epping Forest | £37,200* | £50,112 | -10.2% |
| Breckland | £36,817 | £38,076 | +10.2% |
| Norwich | £36,669 | £37,546 | +1.7% |
| Colchester | £36,624 | £40,664 | -5.8% |
| Rochford | £36,423* | £48,098 | +3.9% |
| Maldon | £36,000* | £48,783* | +2.1% |
| East Cambridgeshire | £35,690 | £43,151 | +5.8% |
| Tendring | £35,334 | £38,630 | +3.1% |
| Fenland | £34,873 | £36,050 | +16.4% |
| Babergh | £34,472 | £36,503 | +9.0% |
| North Norfolk | £33,888 | £34,458 | +4.8% |
* Less precise (coefficient of variation over 10%).
The highest-paid jobs in the East of England
For jobs located in the East of England, where the estimate is precise (coefficient of variation up to 10%).
| Job | Median a year | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|
| Programmers and software development professionals | £67,192 | +10.8% |
| Financial managers and directors | £63,645 | +6.0% |
| IT managers | £58,692 | +8.9% |
| Business and financial project management professionals | £55,654 | -8.2% |
| Sales accounts and business development managers | £55,577 | +3.0% |
| Police officers (sergeant and below) | £50,912 | +1.7% |
| Secondary education teaching professionals | £47,288 | +3.0% |
| Metal working production and maintenance fitters | £46,661 | +16.6% |
| Primary education teaching professionals | £45,352 | +4.5% |
| Other nursing professionals | £44,665 | +5.0% |
| Business and related research professionals | £43,430 | +8.0% |
| Large goods vehicle drivers | £42,209 | +2.8% |
The most common full-time jobs in the East of England
| Job | Jobs (indicative) | Median a year |
|---|---|---|
| Other nursing professionals | 36,000 | £44,665 |
| Sales accounts and business development managers | 35,000 | £55,577 |
| Production managers and directors in manufacturing | 34,000 | £60,567* |
| Programmers and software development professionals | 33,000 | £67,192 |
| Warehouse operatives | 33,000 | £30,370 |
| Care workers and home carers | 28,000 | £28,227 |
| Secondary education teaching professionals | 26,000 | £47,288 |
| Other administrative occupations (other) | 26,000 | £29,639 |
| Business and financial project management professionals | 25,000 | £55,654 |
| Managers and directors in retail and wholesale | 24,000 | £39,882 |
| Financial managers and directors | 23,000 | £63,645 |
| Primary education teaching professionals | 22,000 | £45,352 |
* Less precise.
East of England and its neighbours
| Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| East of England | £40,531 | £43,254 | +4.5% |
| London | £53,132 | £49,789 | +6.2% |
| South East | £41,664 | £44,010 | +3.9% |
| East Midlands | £36,975 | £37,822 | +4% |
Limits
ASHE covers employee jobs, not the self-employed; the 2026 figures are provisional and ONS revises them a year later. Annual pay is for employees in the same job for at least a year. More in our methodology.
Sources
- ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, provisional, Table 7: place of work by local authority
- ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, provisional, Table 8: place of residence by local authority
- ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, provisional, Table 15: region by occupation
- Take-home pay: Paygrade's 2026/27 UK tax engine, see the methodology.
- ONS, Annual regional labour productivity dataset (1998 to 2023), Table 2, 19 June 2025
- ONS, Regional gross value added (balanced) by industry: all ITL regions, Table 1c, 23 September 2026
- ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024 (provisional), employment by industry, via Nomis, 28 October 2025
- ONS, Regional economic activity by gross domestic product, UK: 1998 to 2024 (Tables 1 and 2), 23 September 2026
Related
- Salaries in the United Kingdom: pay for every career we cover
- Local pay lookup: any UK town or village
- NHS pay bands 2026/27
- Am I underpaid? Check your pay against the official figures