The UK has a very competitive job market so you may find that the amount of money you can earn will vary quite a lot from company to company.

The rules of the market usually apply so you will find that while your wage still depend on how much experience you have, it will also depend on how much demand there is for your specific skills in the UK workplace.

One crucial point to remember is that the minimum wage is £4.92 per hour if you are aged between 18 -20 years old and £5.93 if you are over, so never expect to be paid less than this.

To give you an idea of how much you can expect to get paid, here are some examples of the different incomes that UK residents earn. But remember that these are just general examples and not fixed amounts. Your employer may negotiate your salary (income) with you when discussing your job, or they may offer you a basic amount with an extra amount tied in to you achieving certain ‘targets’. When you see a job advertised with the amount followed by 'OTE' (On Target Earnings) it means that this rule applies.

Many people earn much more than the amounts shown below for all kinds of different jobs and some earn a lot less.

On average, in May 2010, public sector workers – people employed by the government- were paid £461 per week and private sector workers were paid an average of £418.

Examples 

Lots of people in the UK also work for themselves, they  are known as being ‘self-employed’. This makes it difficult to say exactly how much they earn each year. For example a fitness instructor earns £270 per week, as we have seen, but may then charge up to £100 per hour for personal training classes, this will boost their income considerably.

Indeed, working for yourself (being self-employed) in the UK is so easy that many people choose this path, see our self-employed article in 'Doing Business' for more information.

People in sales jobs can earn lots of extra money in commission, so, for example, an Estate Agent who earns a salary of £20,000 per year can increase their earnings considerably, sometimes even doubling it.

Overall you will find that incomes in the UK are high compared with many other countries and attract people from all over the world looking to take advantage of them.

The best way to get a clear idea of how much you will be earning when you start work is to register with some employment  agencies - known as ‘recruitment consultants’ - here in the UK.  You can do this online by visiting our “Find a…” section and by speaking to the agents on the telephone.

By John Hillman

USEFUL WORDS

make / earn money = to get money for work that you do

earn a crust = to earn enough money to live on (informal)

basic salary / wages = the money you receive from your job after tax has been taken

gross salary = the money your employer pays you before tax is taken

deductions = the amount of money taken from your salary for tax purposes

monthly outgoings = money you spend from your salary every month on rent, bills, food etc.

overtime = time that you spend working at your job after you have worked your normal hours

bonus = extra money your employer gives you for doing a particular job or excellent work, often at Christmas

commission = an amount of money that is paid to you for selling something and which increases when you sell more

perks = something you receive as well as your wages for doing a particular job (e.g. a company car, free medical insurance)

benefits = money the government pays people who cannot work because they are unemployed, sick etc.

GRAMMAR SPOT

Whole and Part Quantities

Use all (of) and most to talk about whole and part quantities:

I make a record of all (of) my monthly outgoings to help me manage my finances

My rent takes up most of my salary

Some quantifiers can express either large/small quantities or whole/part quantities.  They include a lot of, much, many, a few, a little.

I found a lot of information on the Internet (a large amount)

But a lot of the information I found wasn't very helpful (a large part)

I get a few perks in my job (a small number)

Some of the perks are very good (a part of the total)