Salaries · United Kingdom · North West
Average salary in North West
Full-time employees working in the North West earn a median of £38,599 a year (ONS ASHE 2026, provisional), 6% below the UK median of £40,911 and the 7th highest of the 12 UK nations and regions. That is up 3.4% on a year earlier. Full-time workers who live in the North West earn a median of £38,503, about the same as jobs located there pay.
By Dominic Roworth · ONS ASHE 2026 data, checked 31 October 2026
Pay in North West: the key figures
Full-time, before tax, year to April 2026.
| Jobs in North West | People living in North West | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median pay | £38,599 | £38,503 | £40,911 |
| Average (mean) pay | £45,433 | £45,700 | £52,109 |
| Lowest-paid 10% earn under | £24,645 | £24,658 | £25,288 |
| Lowest-paid 25% earn under | £29,274 | £29,328 | £30,600 |
| Highest-paid 25% earn over | £52,643 | £53,006 | £56,842 |
| Highest-paid 10% earn over | £72,148 | £72,254 | £82,680 |
| Median a week | £764.80 | £765.80 | £811.20 |
| Median an hour | £19.70 | £19.70 | £20.90 |
| Full-time employee jobs (indicative) | 1,970,000 | 1,962,000 | 18,184,000 |
ONS counts jobs, not people.
Take-home pay on the median
On £38,599, a full-time employee keeps about £31,311 a year (£2,609 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 North West
Pay in the North West sits close to its productivity. Jobs here pay a median of £38,599, 5.7% below the UK, and output per hour worked was 5.2% below the UK average in 2023, the smallest gap of any region in the North or the Midlands. The region has also been catching up: output per hour grew 2.4% a year from 2019 to 2023, faster than in any other region (ONS).
Manufacturing is a bigger part of the economy than nationally, at 12.7% of output against 8.9% for the UK, and health and social work provide 15.6% of jobs against 13.9% across Great Britain. Finance contributes 5.2% of output, below the UK's 8.0%. As in most regions, the gap is widest at the top: the best-paid tenth start at £72,148, 12.7% below the UK, while the lowest-paid tenth are only 2.5% behind.
The top of the council table is not the big cities. Warrington's jobs pay £45,254, with a fifth of its jobs in professional, scientific and technical work, about twice the British share. Cumberland follows at £42,704, with manufacturing at 15.1% of local jobs. Manchester (£42,553) shows the commuter effect: its jobs pay far more than its own residents earn (£36,860), while people living in Trafford (£46,055) and Fylde (£44,998) earn well above what jobs there pay. Burnley, Wyre, Rossendale and Tameside sit at the bottom, all under £33,000.
What is changing: the economy grew 1.6% in real terms in 2024, joint fastest in the UK with the North East, led by the Liverpool City Region (1.9%) and Greater Manchester (1.8%). Pay has not kept up. Jobs in the North West saw a 3.4% rise in 2026, the second smallest of the 12 regions, against 4.5% for the UK.
Pay by council
Across the North West's 35 council areas, jobs pay most in Warrington (£45,254) and least in Burnley (£32,377). Any town or village: local pay lookup.
| Council | Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warrington | £45,254 | £39,850 | +10.2% |
| Cumberland | £42,704 | £42,872 | +0.0% |
| Manchester | £42,553 | £36,860 | +5.2% |
| Salford | £40,795 | £37,481 | +4.7% |
| Knowsley | £40,738 | £37,441 | +5.0% |
| Trafford | £40,343 | £46,055 | +5.1% |
| Cheshire East | £39,722 | £44,002 | +0.6% |
| Cheshire West and Chester | £39,535 | £41,912 | +6.5% |
| Preston | £39,082 | £35,668* | +2.6% |
| Liverpool | £38,838 | £38,235 | +0.9% |
| Chorley | £38,567* | £42,158 | +10.2% |
| Wirral | £37,898 | £38,360 | +7.2% |
| Bury | £37,850 | £39,423 | +9.1% |
| Stockport | £37,666 | £41,289 | +7.0% |
| Halton | £37,360 | £36,116 | -0.3% |
| Blackburn with Darwen | £36,882 | £33,968 | +4.2% |
| Westmorland and Furness | £36,796 | £37,826 | -7.5% |
| Blackpool | £36,565 | £33,652 | +12.9% |
| West Lancashire | £36,393 | £39,801 | +8.6% |
| Oldham | £36,352 | £36,352 | +7.5% |
| Sefton | £36,083 | £38,928 | +8.1% |
| South Ribble | £35,854* | £38,890 | +1.3% |
| Hyndburn | £35,485 | £37,106 | +5.9% |
| Fylde | £35,432 | £44,998 | -21.4% |
| Lancaster | £35,334 | £36,712 | -3.3% |
| Bolton | £35,220 | £35,841 | +7.3% |
| Wigan | £34,482 | £38,143 | +2.1% |
| Ribble Valley | £33,474* | £37,933 | -32.1% |
| St. Helens | £33,298 | £38,293 | -0.3% |
| Rochdale | £33,155 | £35,878 | -1.8% |
| Tameside | £32,901 | £36,001 | +6.1% |
| Rossendale | £32,777 | £35,657* | +7.4% |
| Wyre | £32,706 | £38,519 | +5.8% |
| Burnley | £32,377* | £36,821 | +3.3% |
| Pendle | not published | £31,923* |
* Less precise (coefficient of variation over 10%).
The highest-paid jobs in the North West
For jobs located in the North West, where the estimate is precise (coefficient of variation up to 10%).
| Job | Median a year | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing, sales and advertising directors | £86,583 | +6.4% |
| Financial managers and directors | £64,763 | -4.4% |
| Business and financial project management professionals | £63,705 | +7.1% |
| Production managers and directors in construction | £59,277 | +15.3% |
| Higher education teaching professionals | £56,535 | +3.8% |
| Sales accounts and business development managers | £55,426 | +1.5% |
| Production managers and directors in manufacturing | £54,814 | -3.2% |
| Programmers and software development professionals | £52,135 | +3.1% |
| Human resource managers and directors | £51,372 | +3.2% |
| Police officers (sergeant and below) | £50,810 | +4.2% |
| Secondary education teaching professionals | £50,230 | +8.5% |
| Nurse practitioners | £47,562 | +6.0% |
The most common full-time jobs in the North West
| Job | Jobs (indicative) | Median a year |
|---|---|---|
| Other nursing professionals | 57,000 | £40,775 |
| Warehouse operatives | 41,000 | £29,053 |
| Other administrative occupations (other) | 40,000 | £28,702 |
| Sales accounts and business development managers | 38,000 | £55,426 |
| Secondary education teaching professionals | 38,000 | £50,230 |
| Programmers and software development professionals | 36,000 | £52,135 |
| Production managers and directors in manufacturing | 35,000 | £54,814 |
| Care workers and home carers | 35,000 | £28,840 |
| National government administrative occupations | 32,000 | £32,260 |
| Nursing auxiliaries and assistants | 31,000 | £28,927 |
| Financial managers and directors | 29,000 | £64,763 |
| Higher education teaching professionals | 28,000 | £56,535 |
* Less precise.
North West and its neighbours
| Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| North West | £38,599 | £38,503 | +3.4% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | £37,519 | £37,676 | +5.2% |
| West Midlands | £38,628 | £38,750 | +4.3% |
| North East | £36,460 | £36,904 | +5.9% |
| Wales | £37,330 | £37,993 | +4.2% |
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, Regional and subregional labour productivity, UK: 2023 (and annual regional labour productivity dataset, Table 2), 19 June 2025
- ONS, Regional economic activity by gross domestic product, UK: 1998 to 2024 (Tables 1 and 2), 23 September 2026
- 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
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