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A broadly shared declare on social media mentioned that the median wage was £24,769 in 2008 and £29,600 by 2025. In the meantime, the declare continued, inflation has elevated costs by 70.51% since 2008, which means {that a} £24,769 wage would have turn into £42,231 if it had stored up with inflation.
Analysis
The declare doesn’t have any sources hooked up to it, nevertheless it appears possible the put up is evaluating very completely different figures.
The individual posting seems to have cited a determine for imply earnings – not median – from 2004/05 as an alternative of 2008, with a median family earnings determine – not imply wage – from 2019 moderately than 2025.
The information
The place does the declare of a £24,769 median wage in 2008 come from?
The poster claimed that the median wage was £24,769 in 2008, with out giving a supply. It isn’t clear the place this determine was obtained from.
It’s attainable that the consumer took this determine from a Wikipedia article which considerably misleadingly cites a report from the Institute for Fiscal Research (IFS).
The Wikipedia article accurately lists the £24,769 determine because the imply, moderately than the median which the social media poster claimed. However the Wikipedia article additionally says that the determine is “2008 knowledge”.
That is right insofar because the IFS report was launched in 2008. Nevertheless, the Wikipedia article doesn’t make it clear that the determine is definitely from the 2004/05 fiscal yr, not from 2008.
The imply is the common quantity in an information set, whereas the median is the center worth when the set is in numerical order.
The figures utilized by the IFS have been taken from the 2004/05 survey of private incomes (SPI) from HM Income and Customs (HMRC). In its report the IFS up to date the figures to current them within the equal 2007/08 costs.The place does the declare of a £29,600 imply wage in 2025 come from?
The poster additionally claimed with no supply that the median wage is £29,600 in 2025. Once more it’s not clear the place this determine has been discovered.
The quantity matches the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics median family earnings determine for 2019, making that one potential supply for the declare. Nevertheless, median family earnings will not be the identical as median wage.
A Google search discovered that the quantity additionally matches an unsourced determine on a jobs web site which claims that the “common wage within the UK (2025)” is £29,600. Nevertheless, other than updating the yr, this web page has not been modified since 2020 when it additionally listed the “common wage within the UK (2020)” as the identical – £29,600.
Owing to the timing it’s attainable that this web site has taken its “common wage” determine from 2019’s family earnings. The oldest archived model of the web page is from April 9 2020, whereas the ONS’s median family earnings determine was launched only a month earlier on March 5.
What would the £24,769 earnings be value in 2004/05?
The IFS’s report doesn’t seem to disclose its actual technique for calculating the change in wage worth between 2004/05 and 2007/08.
It merely cites “authors’ calculations primarily based on SPI 2004–05”. That could be a reference to the Survey of Private Incomes (SPI) from that yr which the PA information company has been unable to seek out.
Nevertheless, the report says that the fundamental tax allowance of £4,745 in 2004/05 would have been value £5,140 in 2007/08 costs.
This means a rise in costs by roughly 8.32% which – permitting for rounding errors – seems near the 8.45% change in Client Costs Index (CPI) between 2005 and 2008.
This could imply that an earnings value £24,769 in 2007/08 costs would have been value round £22,866 – once more permitting for rounding errors – in 2004/05.
What would have occurred if salaries had stored up with inflation since 2004/05?
As a result of the earnings acknowledged is from 2004/05, not 2008 as claimed, the inflation charge since 2008 will not be related.
Between 2005 and 2024 – the final full yr for which knowledge is offered – costs elevated by round 71.45% in response to the CPI measurement. This means that the imply earnings in 2004/05 (£22,866) can be round £39,202 in 2024 if it had stored up with inflation – once more permitting for rounding errors.
If evaluating CPI figures from March 2005 – the final month of the 2004/05 fiscal yr – with the latest CPI determine in June 2025, inflation has seen costs rise by 79.23%. That will imply the imply wage from 2004/05 can be round £40,981 had it stored up with inflation.
Median earnings in 2004/05 was £16,400. If that earnings had stored tempo with worth will increase of 71.45% it could be value £28,117. On the 79.23% inflation charge it could be value £29,393.
What are imply and median incomes at the moment?
Based on HMRC knowledge, median earnings earlier than tax was £28,400 in 2023 – the newest yr for which an SPI survey has been revealed. This determine is for people, not for households.
The imply earnings in the identical yr was £40,400.
What’s the distinction between median and imply?
Each median and imply are two alternative ways of measuring the common.
The imply is arrived at by including each worth collectively in a dataset after which dividing it by the variety of entries in that dataset.
For example, if calculating imply earnings, you add collectively the earnings of each individual within the dataset, whether or not that be £20,000 per yr or £200,000 per yr, after which divide that determine by the variety of individuals whose earnings you might have measured.
The median may be very completely different. To measure the median you line up all of the values in a dataset in ascending order and select the entry precisely within the center. The good thing about this strategy is that it can’t be skewed by a small variety of actually excessive earners on the high.
In a approach it may be seen because the distinction between calculating the common quantity that folks earn (imply) or calculating what the common individual earns (median).
Hyperlinks
Publish on X (archived)
ONS – Common family earnings, UK: monetary yr ending 2019 (archived)
Common Wage and Wage within the UK (archived from 2025 and 2020)
Wikipedia article (archived)
IFS – Publications (archived)
IFS- Racing away? Earnings inequality and the evolution of excessive incomes (archived)
ONS – CPI (archived)
Gov.uk – Private Earnings Statistics Tables 3.1 to three.11, 3.16 and three.17 for the tax yr 2022 to 2023 (archived, see Desk 3.1 and Desk 3.2 for related knowledge)
