Salaries · United Kingdom · West Midlands
Average salary in West Midlands
Full-time employees working in the West Midlands earn a median of £38,628 a year (ONS ASHE 2026, provisional), 6% below the UK median of £40,911 and the 6th highest of the 12 UK nations and regions. That is up 4.3% on a year earlier. Full-time workers who live in the West Midlands earn a median of £38,750, about the same as jobs located there pay.
By Dominic Roworth · ONS ASHE 2026 data, checked 31 October 2026
Pay in West Midlands: the key figures
Full-time, before tax, year to April 2026.
| Jobs in West Midlands | People living in West Midlands | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median pay | £38,628 | £38,750 | £40,911 |
| Average (mean) pay | £45,517 | £46,047 | £52,109 |
| Lowest-paid 10% earn under | £24,643 | £24,612 | £25,288 |
| Lowest-paid 25% earn under | £29,349 | £29,364 | £30,600 |
| Highest-paid 25% earn over | £52,745 | £53,071 | £56,842 |
| Highest-paid 10% earn over | £71,266 | £72,771 | £82,680 |
| Median a week | £765.80 | £766.60 | £811.20 |
| Median an hour | £19.60 | £19.60 | £20.90 |
| Full-time employee jobs (indicative) | 1,519,000 | 1,535,000 | 18,184,000 |
ONS counts jobs, not people.
Take-home pay on the median
On £38,628, a full-time employee keeps about £31,332 a year (£2,611 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 West Midlands
Jobs in the West Midlands pay a median of £38,628, 5.6% below the UK, a smaller gap than its productivity suggests: output per hour worked was 14.8% below the UK average in 2023, among the four lowest of the 12 nations and regions.
Car making and other manufacturing anchor the economy, at 12.7% of output against 8.9% for the UK. JLR says nearly 9,000 employees at its Solihull plant have been retrained to build electric vehicles, and that its supplier network sustains 60,000 jobs in the West Midlands. Wholesale and retail provide 15.2% of jobs, the highest share in Great Britain, and transport and storage 6.4%, against 13.6% and 4.9% nationally, while finance is 5.0% of output against 8.0% for the UK (ONS, 2024).
The top of the council table is in Warwickshire and Solihull rather than Birmingham. Stratford-on-Avon's jobs pay £51,376, and professional, scientific and technical work, which includes engineering and research, makes up 20.3% of jobs there, more than twice the British share. Solihull (£43,866) and Coventry (£42,373) follow. Birmingham's jobs pay £40,446 but its residents earn £37,484, and Coventry shows the same pattern, while people living in commuter districts such as Bromsgrove (£48,979), Warwick (£47,322) and Lichfield (£45,588) earn far more than local jobs pay. Tamworth, Staffordshire Moorlands and Wyre Forest have the lowest workplace medians.
What is changing: pay for West Midlands jobs rose 4.3% in 2026, and the economy grew 1.4% in real terms in 2024, 1.6% in the West Midlands Combined Authority area. JLR, whose production was interrupted by a cyber incident in September 2025 and restarted that October, plans to build its new Jaguar Type 01 at Solihull from 2027.
Pay by council
Across the West Midlands's 30 council areas, jobs pay most in Stratford-on-Avon (£51,376) and least in Tamworth (£32,570). Any town or village: local pay lookup.
| Council | Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stratford-on-Avon | £51,376 | £48,248 | +4.1% |
| Solihull | £43,866 | £47,874 | +2.8% |
| Coventry | £42,373 | £37,815 | +2.7% |
| Worcester | £40,601 | £40,638 | +7.8% |
| Birmingham | £40,446 | £37,484 | +5.2% |
| South Staffordshire | £40,069 | £43,081* | -0.6% |
| Warwick | £39,601 | £47,322 | +3.9% |
| North Warwickshire | £38,300 | £40,838 | +3.6% |
| Wolverhampton | £38,290 | £37,038 | +6.8% |
| East Staffordshire | £38,128 | £39,608 | +13.2% |
| Lichfield | £38,127 | £45,588 | +10.0% |
| Rugby | £37,806* | £46,561 | -9.5% |
| Telford and Wrekin | £37,389 | £37,145 | +3.4% |
| Cannock Chase | £37,185* | £37,449 | +2.8% |
| Bromsgrove | £37,164 | £48,979 | +6.4% |
| Stafford | £36,924 | £40,278 | +6.0% |
| Walsall | £36,705 | £36,268 | +4.2% |
| Shropshire | £36,624 | £39,836 | +7.1% |
| Dudley | £36,606 | £37,259 | +3.7% |
| Stoke-on-Trent | £36,484 | £34,826 | +4.7% |
| Wychavon | £35,708 | £39,866 | -2.8% |
| Nuneaton and Bedworth | £35,642 | £36,388 | +5.5% |
| Redditch | £35,448 | £34,815 | -4.3% |
| Herefordshire, County of | £34,937 | £37,201 | +4.0% |
| Malvern Hills | £34,899* | £40,856* | +2.0% |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme | £34,820 | £36,242 | +6.2% |
| Sandwell | £34,580 | £33,561 | +4.2% |
| Wyre Forest | £34,348 | £38,678 | +5.1% |
| Staffordshire Moorlands | £33,728 | £40,155 | +9.2% |
| Tamworth | £32,570 | £38,600 | +0.9% |
* Less precise (coefficient of variation over 10%).
The highest-paid jobs in the West Midlands
For jobs located in the West Midlands, where the estimate is precise (coefficient of variation up to 10%).
| Job | Median a year | Change on a year |
|---|---|---|
| IT business analysts, architects and systems designers | £61,999 | -0.1% |
| Business and financial project management professionals | £58,749 | -0.8% |
| Sales accounts and business development managers | £56,739 | +1.9% |
| Production managers and directors in manufacturing | £55,892 | +3.3% |
| Human resource managers and directors | £55,569 | +1.2% |
| IT managers | £53,451 | +3.6% |
| Quality assurance and regulatory professionals | £51,774 | +0.7% |
| Engineering professionals (other) | £49,708 | +2.7% |
| Higher education teaching professionals | £48,405 | -7.1% |
| Police officers (sergeant and below) | £48,013 | +1.5% |
| Secondary education teaching professionals | £47,199 | +0.4% |
| Finance and investment analysts and advisers | £45,072 | +6.4% |
The most common full-time jobs in the West Midlands
| Job | Jobs (indicative) | Median a year |
|---|---|---|
| Warehouse operatives | 46,000 | £28,426 |
| Care workers and home carers | 34,000 | £27,090 |
| Sales accounts and business development managers | 31,000 | £56,739 |
| Production managers and directors in manufacturing | 30,000 | £55,892 |
| Other nursing professionals | 30,000 | £42,722 |
| Secondary education teaching professionals | 29,000 | £47,199 |
| Other administrative occupations (other) | 27,000 | £29,016 |
| Police officers (sergeant and below) | 26,000 | £48,013 |
| Managers and directors in retail and wholesale | 25,000 | £39,032 |
| Higher education teaching professionals | 24,000 | £48,405 |
| Metal working production and maintenance fitters | 24,000 | £42,145 |
| Programmers and software development professionals | 22,000 | £48,228* |
* Less precise.
West Midlands and its neighbours
| Jobs there | People living there | Change on a year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Midlands | £38,628 | £38,750 | +4.3% |
| East Midlands | £36,975 | £37,822 | +4% |
| South West | £39,078 | £39,457 | +5% |
| North West | £38,599 | £38,503 | +3.4% |
| 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, 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
- JLR media, Designed, engineered and manufactured in Britain: JLR unveils new Jaguar Type 01, 7 October 2026
- JLR media, JLR restarts manufacturing and introduces new financing solution to pay JLR suppliers early, 7 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