The 2027 UK Salary Guide From Robert Half

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In a labour market being reshaped by AI adoption, evolving skill demands and cost pressures, employers are aligning pay more closely to specialised capabilities, and, in some cases, exceeding budgeted salary ranges to compete for talent. Expanding pay transparency and a growing focus on employee perks and benefits are also changing how companies approach compensation.

The 2027 UK Salary Guide From Robert Half provides projected salary benchmarks for key roles across 6 professional fields. This data-driven resource helps employers make informed decisions about compensation, talent retention and workforce planning, and helps enable professionals to evaluate career opportunities and earning potential.

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Benchmark 2027 salary ranges for your role and location. Search by job title and city

Salaries by profession

Access projected starting salaries for hundreds of positions in 6 professional fields. Select your field of interest

Perks and benefits

Compare your benefits and perks with what workers value most. Browse perks and benefits trends

2027 UK compensation trends

Specialised skills remain a major driver of compensation decisions as businesses work to hire and retain in-demand talent with targeted premiums, particularly for skills that leverage AI. At the same time, rising employment costs, including higher employer National Insurance contributions, are prompting organisations to move away from broad salary increases towards more selective compensation strategies that offer greater budget flexibility for critical roles and hard-to-staff skills.

Insights at a glance

53%

of UK hiring managers expect compensation budgets to increase next year to help attract and retain top talent, despite other cost pressures.

40%

are offering salaries above their planned range to secure top talent, with 72% citing specialised skills as a reason.

32%

are paying more for professionals with generative AI skills.

Value of salary benchmarking

Comparing salaries against reliable market data is a critical step in validating pay decisions and identifying necessary adjustments. More than 8 in 10 companies (82%) are reviewing, or plan to review, salaries for parity.

84% of companies have or intend to establish clear pay bands across roles and levels.

73% use—or plan to use—external market data to benchmark salaries.

Benefits of pay transparency

As pay transparency legislation and expectations expand around the world, many organisations are evaluating and adjusting how they communicate compensation. Reliable market data helps ensure those ranges are credible. Employers say sharing salary ranges upfront leads to:

of companies are currently or plan to include salary ranges in job postings.

of companies are currently or intend to increase annual compensation budgets specifically to address pay gaps.

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Why trust our salary numbers?

The Salary Guide From Robert Half is the original, and it is a trusted resource for employers, jobseekers and industry leaders.

210

roles benchmarked

24

UK cities

365k+

salaries analysed

Trends and salaries by professional field

Get projected 2027 starting salaries and salary insights in 6 professional fields.

Finance and accounting

IT and technology

Marketing and creative

Legal

Administrative and business support

Human resources

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Frequently asked questions

The 2027 UK Salary Guide provides projected starting salaries as well as compensation trends in 6 professional fields. It helps employers make hiring, retention and workforce planning decisions, and supports jobseekers with career planning and salary negotiation.

Salary guides help employers set competitive pay and professionals negotiate fair compensation based on their skills and experience. While expanding pay transparency legislation and initiatives give professionals more visibility into individual roles, knowing how compensation compares across companies adds another layer of insight. That’s where data like ours comes in.

We use a rigorous, multistep process to develop starting salary benchmarks that reflect projected market trends. The ranges in the guide are based on compensation data for candidates our recruiters have placed across the UK, plus third-party job posting data we use for independent validation and insights from our recruiting professionals who validate the data against real-world hiring and compensation trends. The result is salary information that is both data informed and recruiter validated.

Yes. Use our Salary Calculator to enter your city and find figures for your market.

No. The guide shows starting salaries only for someone new to the role. They do not include bonuses or annual merit increases. For information on bonuses and other incentives, explore the perks and benefits section in our guide.

We determine market variances with input from our compensation team and talent solutions professionals, who assess local cost of living, talent supply and demand, and the concentration of high-paying industries in each region.

Salary growth is expected to remain measured in 2027, but employers are still investing in competitive pay for critical roles, hard-to-staff positions and candidates with specialised skills.

Pay transparency is also increasing demand for current salary data as employers need accurate market benchmarks to set and communicate competitive salary ranges.

Explore a world of salary and hiring insights

The salary benchmarks in the UK Salary Guide From Robert Half are the result of a rigorous, multistep process designed to reflect projected market trends for 2027. They are based on actual compensation for professionals Robert Half has placed across the UK, along with 365k third-party job posting data from Textkernel that we use for independent validation.

Non-salary data referenced in the UK Salary Guide is based on online surveys developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Robert Half commissioned research amongst 1,500 respondents using an online data collection methodology. The respondents represent 500 hiring managers and 1,000 workers in finance and accounting, IT and technology, administrative and office support, marketing and creative, and legal. Respondents are drawn from a sample of small-to-midsized enterprises (20-249 employees), and large (250-plus employees) private, publicly listed and public sector organisations across the UK.