00:00Have you ever wondered what income you need to have to be considered a top earner in the UK?
00:04I've done the research and I'm going to share with you what it would take to be in the top 25%,
00:09top 10% and that all important top 1% of earners if you live and work in the UK.
00:15If you're new to this channel, I'm Matt. I've been a finance consultant for over 10 years.
00:19I've worked for one of the top consulting companies in London. I now run my own company
00:24and on this channel, I talk all things personal finance. So let's get going with the earnings
00:28breakdown. The figures I'm going to show in this video are based on the ONS September 2024 report,
00:34which you can access online. These are pre-tax figures and are based on both full-time and
00:39part-time earners. If you were to exclude the part-time earners, then the salary amount for
00:44full-time earners would be slightly higher. If you look at the overall UK median salary per month,
00:49it is £2,420 or £29,040 per year. This is up by about 6.2% compared to last year,
00:58with the recent high inflation continuing to push up wages. The median pay varies greatly by
01:04industry. And as you can see from this graph, finance and insurance lead the way with the
01:08highest median salaries. Then health work, education, construction, transportation, and
01:14manufacturing jobs are in the middle with accommodation, food, retail, and the arts and
01:20entertainment industries with the lowest median salaries. So what are the top 25% earning?
01:26On average, people in this category are earning £40,920 per year or £3,410 per month.
01:35There are around 5.6 million full-time earners in the UK in this category. You might be watching this
01:41video and thinking, actually, I'm earning close to that, or even I'm earning more than that. And that's
01:46great if that's the case, because that means you're already earning more than the majority of people
01:51in the UK. So next up is the top 10%. According to the ONS report, they're earning on average £66,060
01:59per year or £5,505 per month. There are around 2.25 million full-time earners in the UK in this group,
02:09and managers, directors, and senior officials are the highest earners in this category.
02:14And finally, what are the top 1% earn in the UK? They earn a massive £187,596 per year or £15,633
02:26per month. Although this is a big jump from the top 10%, you might be thinking, this is not quite as
02:33much as you were expecting. Remember, this is earned income and not wealth from things like assets. A lot
02:40of the rich people in the UK will be increasing their wealth from their assets appreciating, such
02:45as stocks and shares or real estate. And this is not factored into the earned income calculation.
02:51There are a couple of factors influencing earnings in the UK. The first is the strong correlation
02:57between earnings and age. So as age increases, so does earnings. The highest earners in the UK are
03:04typically in their 40s or early 50s. And the lowest earners in the UK are typically under 20 or in their
03:11early 20s. So don't worry if you feel like you're behind or you're not in the top categories of earnings
03:17just yet. The second factor is location, which also plays a big part. The higher salaries are typically
03:24paid in the large cities. And the cost of living difference contributes to different levels of earnings
03:30seen across the UK. For example, a central London average salary in Westminster is £3,559 per month versus
03:40an average salary in Manchester of £2,237 per month. If you want to see what the median salary is in the
03:48area that you live and work, you can use the interactive graph on the ONS website to see this.
03:54So does having a high earned income actually mean you're rich? Well, not necessarily. An individual
04:01could be in the top 10% or even in the top 1% of earners. But if they have a high cost of living
04:07and lifestyle to maintain, the amount of money they're able to save and invest could actually
04:12be quite small. For example, although you might live and work in central London and have an above
04:18average salary, the high cost of living means that your disposable income could be lower than someone
04:23doing a similar job earning less per month outside of London. The key to growing your wealth is using
04:29your earned income to invest and over time to compound those investments to become wealthier and
04:35wealthier. If you want to improve your earnings and move into a higher category and importantly be able
04:41to save and invest more money, then in my view, the number one thing is to focus on building your
04:47skills and improving your value on the job market. This will make you more attractive to employers
04:52and as such, your earning potential will increase. I hope this video has been helpful. Feel free to
04:58leave any questions in the comments and give the video a like and a subscribe and I'll see you on the
05:03next video.
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