How does your salary compare? The 10 best paid jobs in the UK

All of us in one or other time in our life was faced with the question: what job should I do? The next question is usually should I do what I enjoy, or what will make the most money? If you are leaning towards the latter, then this top ten is for you.

1. Directors and chief executives. Average earnings: £212,910

A director or chief executive’s role varies greatly from company to company but they are the head of the business. In a public company, the chief executive or CEO, as they are known in America, will answer to a board of directors.

2. City brokers. Average earnings: £94,293

The City broker is usually portrayed by the media as a scary man screaming and gesticulating manically. They are in fact qualified professionals who buy and sell shares on behalf of investors. To become one, a person is required to pass the Certificate in Securities from the Securities and Investment Institute.

3. Doctors: Average earnings: £81,744

The salary of doctors has been high up the political agenda lately after the Government introduced new contracts that many outside observers regarded as overly generous.

4. Financial Managers/Accountants. Average earnings: £77,931

Almost every business or organization has a financial manager. This profession works in both the public and private sector, in many different organisations, such as financial institutions, multinationals, universities and small companies.

5. Aircraft pilots and flight engineers. Average earnings: £63,664

In order to qualify for CAA licence, applicants are required to have at lest 250 hours of flight experience.

6. Mining managers. Average earnings: £58,802

A degree in mining engineering will be required most of the time, as well some years of experience in the field.

7. Research and Development managers. Average earnings: £54,950

Jobs in research reach more than one field, for example, you can be a research scientist, a research psychologist or a programme researcher.

8. Marketing and sales managers. Average earnings: £54,029

Many organizations have marketing departments, in both the private and public sector. Sales managers are responsible for organizing and leading sales teams in a broad range of areas, making sure that the team as a whole reaches the targets set.

9.Airtraffic Controllers. Average earnings: £51,911

Being an airtraffic controller demands huge levels of responsibility. These professionals are in charge of maintaining order and safety in airports and air routes by advising pilots about matters of course, speed and height.

10. Legal Professionals. Average earnings: £50,649

The category of legal professional includes barristers, solicitors, legal executives, licensed conveyancers, court clerks, judges and drafters of legislation.

By Liliana Monteiro. Source: Office for National Statistics.

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Picture courtesy of Erik K Veland 

Comments

[GC]

The use of 'legal professionals' as a category masks the spread of pay levels for lawyers. Paralegals, legal executives and junior solicitors in high-street firms are lucky to take home £20k, whereas partners at the top firms in London can take home well over £1 million, and top QCs can command even more. It probably speaks volumes that the average is so low: only a lucky few lawyers are very well paid.

[masob]

penerally you thought wrong- "greedy doctors" actually earn less than this, why dont you become a doctor? i expect you wouldnt want to work hrd and want to continue scrounging off the state . dont make false assumption, look at pay slips of doctors to get yor facts right you idiot.

[jason]

citylawyers earn at the very least 500k most hwever earn 2 million a year

[emily]

wouldnt worry about the overpaid doctors- it will be much worse once nulabour have privtised it because doctors will charge for their services and earn even more and good luck to them too. Oh and they will choose their patients so that numbskills like francis and co will have trouble finding one.

I'm not sure how most of you who have commented earn a lot of money. You don't even seem able to understand what average means.

[AB]

I'm glad Doctors are paid this much, and wish they were paid more. Why should Doctors - that save people - be paid less than stock brokers, that save money?

And for all those people who criticise Doctors - I'm glad you do not have the education, committment, responsibility, work ethic, stamina, morals and compassion to be one.

[Tonye]

Bus drivers on 40k? Rubbish. I'm a fully qualified bus driver, just tell me where I can get this sort of money and I'll apply tomorrow.

[Hilary]

Where are the Head Teachers of Secondary Schools? £70-100K easily!!

[nicholas bird]

who cares?

[girish]

doctors earning £81,744!, happens only when u r seniormost (bar GPs in partnership), which is when u r aged 43+ (atleast for me,so don't take gps, it will be like saying average income of uk is 2000 pounds and mr x and Mr Beckham earn the same

[Chris]

I certainly hope Minesh Patel gets the sort of doctor he deserves.

[ViSalus]

Thanks for this excellent compilation of companies operating in this space.

[jim]

A dreadfully researched article. But hey, if my occupation was listed I'd be in number two position!

[James]

The article itself to me seems poorly presented: it is not hard to think of many acquaintances who earn either much more, or much less than the figures shown. I'm a Sales Manager - my salary is only about 25% of my annual earnings if me and my team hit our targets. My salary is less than the quoted example, but my take-home pay is much more. My neighbour is a qualified doctor, but who works as the clinical trials lead for one of the big pharmaceutical companies. Last year, he cleared over a million (he says) net of tax.

Statistics. Didn't Mark Twain have something to say about that?

[d holmes]

i'm afraid many people have been carrying on as if they've been on government "LSD" wow isn't life great! i.e keep borrowing, keep spending have one car have two, take two or three holidays become property barons ;oh, er, but guys, don't forget to vote for us! T.b. liar, well i've created the titanic of feel good factors, can't possibly last for a full third term, so i'm off to the life boats. mr personality will stick around for some history the rest for the perks.

[fern]

do you expect people to believe this list.

the posh should be slaughtered

[T Hutchings]

I simply cannot believe the electorate is starting to back Gordon Brown and his party, Have people forgotten his stealth taxes, the theft of money from the pensions industry, the massive increase in civil servants' mps' pay and local council salaries, all with inflation proof pensions and all payed for by the taxpayer. Labour has virtually bankrupted this country and should never be alloed to govern us again.

[Evie]

I just think all of these comments prove how when money gets mentioned, humans go very strange..!

Chill out. You're never going to prove whether these stats are true or not, and you're all getting yourselves into such a tizzy. What does it matter to you? The only power you have is to change your own life: study for a job you're interested in (perhaps because of its status / financial reward), but don't go wasting energy on how much others earn. Your comments won't change anything.

One comment here stands out and that is: money IS the root of all evil.

Good night.

[d holmes]

can you tell us which uk airlines still operates with flight engineers? i think research well out of date!

[JH]

Why is it so easy to bash doctors - the responsibility and demands of the job of a hospital doctor are huge. Yet people cry foul about their salaries. I think they are worth far more and comments like 'its tax payers money' and 'make them work weekends' simply display the ignorance of people who are jealous of what they do.

[DP]

What is particularly ironic is that - as a specialist doctor myself - more and more patients demand to see me privately and they are more than happy to pay for my expertise. Sadly freeloaders like Frances will never understand that people will always pay more for the best. Amen.

[DP]

The salary of doctors given here is very misleading. Throughout their arduous training they earn much less than their peers and the figures given here are achieved only at the top end. For those of you who hate paying doctors: you are all cheap -- if you pay peanuts you will get monkeys and I am more than happy for you to leave your health in the hands of underqualified, poorly trained and badly paid staff who will be happy to work for nothing and who will simply be fired when you have a complication (or even mortality). There is always a flight to quality and the best will simply leave for Canada, the US, Dubai, Australasia, Singapore or China (to name a few). I wish you all good luck. Patients who have the motivation will ALWAYS seek out the best doctors. Stop the envy and praise the talent!!!

[mike mckeary]

never mentioned traders, they can make 10k a day.
can lose as well, but the bonus from the hedge fund is usually 100 times the salary

[Mark Sciberras]

What is the definition of average earnings in this article? Is it net post tax income or gross pre tax income? If it the latter these figures are understated.

[Alex]

this is way off the mark unless bonuses are not being included. a city broker would earn way way more than that and given the price of housing in this country it looks like many of the highest paid professionals in the UK should sign up to the list for council housing if they live in the South East.

[John]

What a poorly focused article that has simply degenerated into a discussion about what averages mean. The journalist that created this should think carefully about what should go into a quality title or website with the reputation of The Times. Why not post rubbish like this on website of The Sun?

[John]

I am a Canadian doctor with some knowledge of the UK system (I did part of my training there and have a number of friends who still work there). UK doctors are underpaid dedicated professionals most of whom work far beyond their paid hours. The British GP system is far better then that in Canada where 40% of the population cannot get a GP. Despite that doctors in Canada are better paid and far more respected.
The lack of respect that British doctors have had from the UK public, journalists and politicians in the last 15 years is appalling. The NHS is one of the best medical systems in the world and should be appreciated more by it's users.

[Peter Watson]

I am a time served engineering craftsman and i earn less than £19000 p/a To earn any more it apears you have to be a penpusher or papershuffler not a craftsman

[Rose]

You must be kidding! I've been in research science for more than 10 years and I've never met one research scientist who has earnt anyway close to 40 K let alone 50 K. Most doctoral research scientists I know earn between 15 - 35 K. This doesn't involve the constant moving costs due to the short contracts, the periods of unemployment between jobs and the huge debt they've gathered to become a real doctor!

[Rebekah]

I guess people can't read. The figures state "average earnings". So sure, there'll be some in those sectors who earn much more than is shown there.

[Andy]

Money makes thew orld go round. it's only riht that hard workers, so people in business and enterpeners mainly, make more than people like doctors who use textbooks rather than initiativ. i am sick to death of bleeding hart do gooders moaning stuff!!!!!!!!!!

[Chris]

In the interests of fairness, I am the chief reporter of a regional paper and earn just under £21k. Our production staff earn little more. An old colleague who now works on the News of the World is apparently on around £26k. The person who put this article together is probably on similar or less. The chap above who thinks journalists earn millions is a deluded fantasist.

[Sue Doughty]

To have a salary one needs to have a job, and my state educated son has none since he was made redundant last month. And his last pay cheque bounced!
Salary - I wish for one.

[Maureen]

Actually JDS, if you're going to be snarky and pedantic,technically mean, median and mode are all different types of averages (and this article hasn't actually stated which one it's used) As a medical student it's something I understand very well, but maybe you need a bit more training in understanding the, er, "basics".

[MissIndependent]

I don't have a degree and I'm no high-flying city girl but I still manage to earn a good 6-figure salary providing project management skills to organisations which have short-sightedly outsourced their own talent. Some of the figures above look fabricated to me...and they certainly don't match the title of the article!

[Dr Greg Taylor]

Frances,

We do.

And evenings.

And nights.

And bank holidays.

And Christmas.

And Boxing Day.

And New Year.

And I don't earn anywhere near the quoted average.

[Brian Eave]

What use is this list, if it doesn't say at what age people - on average - reach these positions and salaries?

A GP could expect to be a high earner very early in their career. But it may take a lifetime of graft before someone reaches board level in a company.

[Chippy75]

Whilst the corporate lawyers get £50k plus, the ones that do legal aid work don't get anywhere near as much - indeed, a lot of the work is done for free because of legal aid regulations. As for me, I'm just a lowly legal assistant and get a mere £16k - way below the so-called 'national average'.

[Mike]

Much like school valued added tables surely we must consider the day-to-day job specifics itself? I teach at a very good private school and earn around £45k a year. We have 20 weeks holiday per year and I live with my family in a house provided for by the school. There is not an amount of money in the world that would make me sit on a packed train every day to then spend it cooped up in a London office staring at a computer screen (I did actually start my career at Goldman Sachs before seeing the light). I do consider my job and others like it in the teaching profession to be fantastic and probably one of the most underated jobs going. Thankfully the culture is to earn as much as you can so the competition for teaching posts (particularly in my subject) is not too competitive.

[j Ross]

Should we not consider licence fee payers as
Taxpayers?! Therefore is Jonathan Ross worth 6 million pounds of our money a year, Alan Hansen on reportedly 1.4 m a year for an hour of match of the day a week! That's a waste of our money not doctors!

[Joe]

Interesting, with an average 3 bed semi in a not so London wonderful suburbs costing over £350K then it is only directives and chief executives who could afford one at 3 times a single salary.

Or does this really show just how out of hand the housing market has become, and how far it has to fall?!

[R Hazarika]

How much would the public like to doctors to be paid?

Considering they provide 24/7 care, are ultimately responsible for someones life, graduate on average with 50K of debt, have undergone over 2000 hours of training before practicing medicine and constantly have to deal with death and the emotional toll of caring for sick people.

I guess they should work for free.

[andy]

judging by the stupidy of comments about doctors i can only assume this site is the daily mail in disguise.

[hg]

those who think doctors should not be paid. maybe would like to work for free too. for those who think medicine is easy- go ahead apply for a position, those who work in hospitals and begrudge the life of a gp , become one- those who feel medicine is "charity " work become a volunteer yourself, not prepared too of course not it means working for nothing- sadly it doesnot pay for food, water, warmth and shelter, so you begrudge that do you, doctors pay tax did you know- more than most of you will in your lifetimes.

[hg]

what about journalists and there million pounds a year salary? i wonder why it isnot mentioned.

[K.H, UK]

Terrible research, just amongst my friends I can think of plenty better paid than this top ten - and we're not talking high flying fund managers or "city boys" either.
What about Head Teachers, Account Managers (sales), IT Managers, IT Consultants etc... all on more than £80k+
I know cabbies that earn more than £50k !!!

[D. Rogers]

There are a lot of stupid comments on this blog post (particualrly from Docs).
It is clear that these categories are averages and include many different types of jobs within the categories.
Anyone who says that the blog is badly researched should perhaps take up the issue with the Office of National Statistics, which is apparently where the figures came from. Fools.

[Bhavin Vaja]

This article and the comments relating to it proves only one thing - MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVILS

[hg]

i notice that ths list does not include journalists. i am sure BBC journalists and newspaper editors must earn a million or two, typical bias reporting. i am goin to stop buying newpapers bewcause of this sort of rubbish, if weall stopped buying newspapers or watching tv, there would be no journalists

[janet]

yet again doctor bashing by the ignorant, why should doctors work 24 hours a day seven days a week, would you, no i bet not. incidently just to reasssure you doctors have had pay cuts every year for the past 4 years, i bet none of you lot would tolerate that.if you dont want to fund the nhs then dont pay tax.