Salaries · United Kingdom · South East
Average salary in South East
Full-time employees working in the South East earn a median of £41,664 a year (ONS ASHE 2026, provisional), 2% above the UK median of £40,911 and the 2nd highest of the 12 UK nations and regions. That is up 3.9% on a year earlier. Full-time workers who live in the South East earn a median of £44,010, 6% 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 South East: the key figures
Full-time, before tax, year to April 2026.
| Jobs in South East | People living in South East | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median pay | £41,664 | £44,010 | £40,911 |
| Average (mean) pay | £50,932 | £58,067 | £52,109 |
| Lowest-paid 10% earn under | £25,508 | £25,965 | £25,288 |
| Lowest-paid 25% earn under | £30,969 | £31,953 | £30,600 |
| Highest-paid 25% earn over | £57,743 | £62,740 | £56,842 |
| Highest-paid 10% earn over | £83,553 | £95,000 | £82,680 |
| Median a week | £821.60 | £865.80 | £811.20 |
| Median an hour | £21.10 | £22.50 | £20.90 |
| Full-time employee jobs (indicative) | 2,324,000 | 2,547,000 | 18,184,000 |
ONS counts jobs, not people.
Take-home pay on the median
On £41,664, a full-time employee keeps about £33,518 a year (£2,793 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 South East
The South East is the only region besides London where output per hour worked beats the UK average, by 7.7% in 2023, and jobs here pay a median of £41,664, a little above the UK. Its residents do better still, at £44,010, second only to London. ASHE counts 2.55 million full-time jobs held by South East residents but 2.32 million located in the region, so many residents work outside the region. The difference is at the top: the best-paid tenth of residents start at £95,000, against £83,553 for jobs in the region.
Surrey's commuter districts show it most. Elmbridge's residents earn £57,962 against £45,698 for jobs there, Epsom and Ewell's £51,102 against £38,618, and Waverley's £48,584 against £39,197.
For jobs, the Thames Valley and north Hampshire lead. Reading has the top workplace median (£50,273), with 17.2% of its jobs in information and communication, almost four times the British share, followed by Wokingham (£49,073), Rushmoor (£48,079), with a similar share, and Bracknell Forest (£47,164). Reading, Rushmoor and Crawley all pay more for jobs than their own residents earn. Across the region, information and communication is 7.6% of output against 6.1% for the UK, while manufacturing is smaller than nationally (7.3% against 8.9%). The coast is at the bottom: the Isle of Wight, Gosport, Hastings and Rother have the lowest workplace medians, all under £35,000.
What is changing: pay for jobs in the South East rose 3.9% in 2026, below the UK's 4.5%, while residents' pay rose 4.8%, so the gap between living and working here widened. The economy grew 1.4% in real terms in 2024.
Pay by council
Across the South East's 64 council areas, jobs pay most in Reading (£50,273) and least in Isle of Wight (£34,058). Any town or village: local pay lookup.
| Council | Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | £50,273 | £41,100 | +3.1% |
| Wokingham | £49,073 | £51,356 | +2.9% |
| Rushmoor | £48,079 | £40,447 | +18.7% |
| Bracknell Forest | £47,164 | £44,673 | +5.2% |
| West Berkshire | £47,150 | £44,996 | +10.4% |
| Woking | £47,074 | £48,983 | +12.8% |
| Runnymede | £46,845* | £54,022 | +3.1% |
| Crawley | £46,181 | £40,843 | +11.5% |
| Milton Keynes | £46,017 | £44,409 | +10.8% |
| Elmbridge | £45,698 | £57,962 | +9.5% |
| Mole Valley | £45,566* | £43,828* | -9.3% |
| Oxford | £45,552 | £45,592 | +4.8% |
| Guildford | £44,754 | £49,639* | +0.3% |
| Vale of White Horse | £44,739 | £45,165 | -1.0% |
| Winchester | £44,505 | £47,354 | +3.0% |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | £44,214 | £53,166 | +3.1% |
| Buckinghamshire | £44,132 | £47,607 | +9.4% |
| Basingstoke and Deane | £43,630 | £47,810 | +4.5% |
| Reigate and Banstead | £43,090 | £48,142 | -0.9% |
| Hart | £42,942 | £48,735 | +6.1% |
| Fareham | £42,646 | £45,266 | +4.9% |
| Spelthorne | £42,463 | £46,177 | +11.0% |
| South Oxfordshire | £42,057 | £48,128* | -6.6% |
| Brighton and Hove | £41,838 | £40,868 | +6.6% |
| Slough | £41,464 | £39,609 | -0.8% |
| Dartford | £41,402 | £44,866 | +12.0% |
| Mid Sussex | £41,384* | £46,207 | +1.6% |
| Horsham | £41,000 | £46,998 | +7.8% |
| Portsmouth | £40,482 | £39,778 | +4.8% |
| Gravesham | £40,464* | £46,268 | +1.0% |
| Folkestone and Hythe | £40,158 | £42,535 | +3.5% |
| West Oxfordshire | £40,130 | £42,647 | -2.0% |
| Southampton | £40,081 | £38,319 | +1.8% |
| Eastleigh | £39,783 | £44,915 | +0.9% |
| Dover | £39,694 | £42,660 | +1.5% |
| Tandridge | £39,656* | £47,067 | +1.6% |
| Adur | £39,399* | £42,594 | -0.5% |
| Tunbridge Wells | £39,285 | £48,022* | +3.5% |
| Thanet | £39,233 | £38,520 | +13.3% |
| Waverley | £39,197 | £48,584 | -5.9% |
| Cherwell | £39,133 | £44,830 | +1.1% |
| Lewes | £39,035 | £43,296 | -1.8% |
| Tonbridge and Malling | £38,756 | £47,255 | +7.3% |
| Epsom and Ewell | £38,618 | £51,102 | -5.2% |
| New Forest | £38,548 | £38,488 | +4.8% |
| Surrey Heath | £38,426 | £44,731* | -3.3% |
| Test Valley | £38,299 | £40,423 | +1.1% |
| Medway | £38,002 | £41,210 | -0.4% |
| Ashford | £37,834 | £38,274 | +9.6% |
| Sevenoaks | £37,743* | £52,817 | +4.2% |
| East Hampshire | £37,263 | £46,263 | +1.5% |
| Worthing | £36,669 | £39,467 | +0.7% |
| Canterbury | £36,471 | £39,579 | -0.6% |
| Chichester | £36,430 | £37,522* | +2.5% |
| Havant | £35,957 | £40,896 | +1.7% |
| Swale | £35,172 | £39,428* | +1.3% |
| Arun | £35,079 | £38,473 | +7.7% |
| Wealden | £34,698 | £41,369* | -1.9% |
| Rother | £34,692 | £38,269 | +6.3% |
| Hastings | £34,585 | £37,328 | -0.4% |
| Gosport | £34,571 | £36,883 | -2.2% |
| Isle of Wight | £34,058 | £35,272 | +20.9% |
| Eastbourne | not published | £38,466 | |
| Maidstone | not published | £39,322* |
* Less precise (coefficient of variation over 10%).
The highest-paid jobs in the South East
For jobs located in the South East, where the estimate is precise (coefficient of variation up to 10%).
| Job | Median a year | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing, sales and advertising directors | £98,432 | +12.9% |
| Financial managers and directors | £72,244 | +2.2% |
| Human resource managers and directors | £69,679 | +8.3% |
| IT business analysts, architects and systems designers | £66,856 | -2.2% |
| Health services and public health managers and directors | £66,392 | -0.7% |
| IT managers | £63,388 | +6.5% |
| Business and financial project management professionals | £61,894 | +3.2% |
| Production managers and directors in construction | £60,802 | +4.1% |
| Programmers and software development professionals | £60,755 | +14.8% |
| Production managers and directors in manufacturing | £58,635 | +3.9% |
| Management consultants and business analysts | £55,577 | +2.0% |
| Quality assurance and regulatory professionals | £53,129 | +5.0% |
The most common full-time jobs in the South East
| Job | Jobs (indicative) | Median a year |
|---|---|---|
| Other nursing professionals | 62,000 | £44,531 |
| Sales accounts and business development managers | 61,000 | £58,942* |
| Secondary education teaching professionals | 53,000 | £46,858 |
| Programmers and software development professionals | 50,000 | £60,755 |
| Production managers and directors in manufacturing | 50,000 | £58,635 |
| Business and financial project management professionals | 44,000 | £61,894 |
| Care workers and home carers | 42,000 | £29,220 |
| Financial managers and directors | 40,000 | £72,244 |
| Other administrative occupations (other) | 39,000 | £29,041 |
| Managers and directors in retail and wholesale | 35,000 | £39,791 |
| Primary education teaching professionals | 34,000 | £45,846 |
| Higher education teaching professionals | 33,000 | £46,119 |
* Less precise.
South East and its neighbours
| Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| South East | £41,664 | £44,010 | +3.9% |
| London | £53,132 | £49,789 | +6.2% |
| East of England | £40,531 | £43,254 | +4.5% |
| South West | £39,078 | £39,457 | +5% |
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, 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, Table 1, 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