UK company benefits and salary benchmarking hub
With the changing nature of the jobs market in the UK, it’s increasingly important employers and employees can access resources that show salary benchmarking and explore company benefits offered and the employee benefits UK workers want to receive. Reed’s UK company benefits, and salary advice is housed on this hub, offering you everything you need to know for UK salary benchmarking – whether you are an employer looking to offer the best packages, or a professional looking for information on what you could, or should, be earning.
The need to reinvigorate Britain’s workforce and address the pressing issue of low labour force participation is now more urgent than ever. Figures released at the end of last year (2024) by the Office for National Statistics reveal that more than nine million people in the UK are economically inactive – for every three working-age adults in employment, one is inactive.
"This imbalance is unsustainable if we are to build a thriving economy. Without a significant shift in the labour participation rate, the rising trend of unemployment threatens not only our economic prosperity, but also the social fabric of our nation. The path forward is clear: policymakers, businesses, and communities must work together to prioritise employment and ensure that no one is left behind." James Reed, Chairman and CEO, Reed.
To date, jobseekers have much greater expectations when it comes to salary and benefits – employers who fail to meet these demands will struggle to attract the best professionals. This not only applies to those looking for work but to retain your existing talent.
Our salary and benefits content in this section provides all the information you need to make the right offerings to existing and prospective employees, and to benchmark your UK salaries and benefits against your competition.
The hub features our 2025 salary guides, which provide extensive salary benchmarking data taken from 21 million jobs posted to Reed.co.uk since 2016, to help you undertake UK salary benchmarking across 10 sectors including accountancy and finance, business support and administration, and technology. The guides allow you to benchmark salaries across geographical UK regions, and industry practices, and feature insight from our industry experts, and regional directors. Found inside each of the guides is a write up of our annual salary and benefits survey with 5,000 UK professionals. Our research asked the sample the hours they work, the salaries and benefits they receive and desire, and their job satisfaction level.
Our UK company benefits, and salary benchmarking hub is also a source of information for popular roles which do not feature within our salary guides, with salary bandings for teachers, nurses, police officers, train drivers, paramedics, pharmacists, midwives, and architects all included.
You will also find key information about the evolving landscape of company benefits in the UK. Whether you want to find out more about hybrid working models, four-day working weeks, maternity, and paternity leave, supporting financial well-being and much more.
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Salaries and benefits - frequently asked questions
Are you searching for the average UK salary to see how your pay packet stacks up against the country’s average? According to the Office for National Statistics the median weekly earnings for full-time employees was £640 in April 2022, which is a 5.0% increase over the £610 in 2021. If you are looking to benchmark salaries in a particular industry, our latest 2025 salary guides cover salary trends across 10 sectors, from technology, accountancy, and finance to human resources. Download your free copy now.
Salary benchmarking is important for both businesses and professionals. If you are a business or hiring manager and are struggling to attract and retain talent, then comparing the salaries you are offering to other businesses in the sector and region can ensure you remain competitive in a challenging market.
Additionally, if you are looking to move jobs, it’s important to know what you can expect to earn so you can go into salary negotiations with a clear understanding of the average salary for that role. For more information on salary benchmarking and why it is important, read our article from James Reed, our Chairman and CEO – it’s the introduction to our 2025 UK salary guides.
At the end of 2024, we conducted a snap survey of 5,000 UK workers to inform our 2025 salary guides, one of the questions we asked was what benefits they received as well as their most desired benefits if they were looking for a new role.
With salary pressures on both workers and organisations, benefits remain a differentiator when it comes to employee rewards. The company benefits offered marry up almost exactly with the benefits employees make use of, with onsite parking, hybrid working, Christmas shutdown and free refreshments ranking as the top received and used benefits. Ranked fifth for offered and utilised benefits is annual salary increments, with 21% of workers receiving this. Salary increases remain the most significant action to make workers feel more valued, with 59% of respondents ranking it at the top. However, 31% said that additional benefits would make them feel valued by their employers, with 30% wanting recognition for their achievements, 22% wanting more thanks from leadership, 22% wanting more flexible hours, and 19% wanting clearer career progression.
In fact, more than a quarter (26%) of workers say they don’t feel valued by their employer, demonstrating room for improvement when it comes to employee relations that won’t necessarily require additional budget from employers.
Only 12% say they are unhappy in their job, suggesting employers have a largely engaged workforce looking for additional recognition. There’s an opportunity here for employers who invest time into their employees to retain and attract the top talent in their field.
We’re seeing potentially unexplored opportunities for organisations to increase staff satisfaction and contentment within their roles that doesn’t relate to a transactional salary increase. In challenging financial times, utilising benefits and strengthening workplace relationships may offer both staff and employers the opportunity to thrive.
Benefits play a critical role in attracting and retaining talent. If you are looking to build a remuneration package, watch our on-demand webinar, ‘The rise of the reward specialist,’ as our panel of top rewards and benefits experts from the public and private sectors, explore the rise of the role and how companies can ensure they are offering the right packages to suit their employees.
If you are looking to find salary guidelines when recruiting or want to compare your own salary against other professionals in the same role, Reed’s annual salary guides are your go-to resource, with all the tools you need to effectively benchmark salaries. Released every year in January, the guides cover 10 of Reed’s specialist recruitment sectors, from accountancy and finance, technology, to human resources, and provide information on roles at all seniorities.
The guides highlight the most interesting developments from that year’s data and feature calculated projections for salaries the following year, while Reed’s regional and practice experts discuss the key local/practice salary and benefits trends you should be aware of. Download our latest 2025 salary guides now.
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