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The highest and lowest paid jobs 2019 – is yours on the list?
BUSINESS bosses, air traffic controllers and marketing and sales directors are the biggest earners this year, according to new government figures.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released the new data as part of its Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
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The data uses pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax records on a random sample of 1 per cent of workers to get an idea of how much different groups of employees are earning.
We took a closer look at the data to find the 20 top-paying jobs for full-time workers based on the mean annual salary before tax.
It doesn't include celebrities and only features information about workers who've been in their job for at least a year.
It turns out that chief executives of businesses are still the highest earners in the UK earning £156,209 a year before tax in 2018/19.
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That's a 4.6 per cent rise compared to the same April to April time frame in 2017/18.
Air traffic controllers take the second spot with a £93,955 average salary, a figure that's risen by 1.7 per cent.
Meanwhile, marketing and sales directors earn just shy of this at £93,372 a year.
We also analysed the research to find the lowest earning jobs in the UK and found that bar staff earned the smallest annual salary at £16,055.
Even though it's the lowest paid job in the UK, the salary actually rose by 7.4 per cent compared to the previous year.
Waiters earn around £16,286 on average making them them the second lowest earners in the UK last year, despite an 8.8 per cent rise in salaries.
Kitchen staff, theme park attendants, educational support assistants and beauticians also feature in the 20 lowest paid jobs.
Find out how your job compares
Know your rights: Women in the workplace
FOR 48 years, it's been illegal to pay men and women different rates for the same job.
But as of 2019, the mean gender pay gap for women working full-time is 8.9 per cent.
So why is there such a big gender pay gap?
Charities have suggested factors include discrimination, undervaluing roles predominantly done by women, dominance of men in best paid positions and unequal caring responsibilities.
The gender pay gap is still an issue around the globe, and , it won’t close until 2186.
If you think you've been fairly discriminated against you can:
- Complain directly to the person or organisation
- Use someone else to help you sort it out (called ‘mediation’ or ‘alternative dispute resolution’)
- Make a claim in a court or tribunal.
Contact the for further help and advice.
Of those we analysed, aircraft pilots and flight engineers saw the biggest salary increase over the past year, jumping by 10.2 per cent to £86,204.
The job that saw the greatest salary drop was managers and directors in finance, which fell by 9.5 per cent to £71,905 a year.
You can find out how your job fares against others in the research by selecting your occupation using this .
The data also shows that the average median weekly earnings for full-time employees has increased by 2.9 per cent to £585 from last year, but the increase is just 0.9 per cent, once inflation has been taken into account.
Disappointingly, the mean gender pay gap among full-time employees stands at 8.9 per cent and has only dropped by 0.6 per cent since 2012.
ONS statistician, Roger Smith, says that even though the figures show a fast rise in earnings overall, real-pay is still "some way below" what it was before the 2008 economic crash once inflation is taken into account.
Nye Cominetti, economic analyst at think tank the Resolution Foundation, added: "Britain’s lowest earners enjoyed the strongest pay rises last year as a result of another big increase in the National Living Wage.
"As a result, their earnings grew at least four times as fast as for Britain’s top earners.
"The strong pay performance for the lowest earners – on both an hourly and a weekly basis – fully vindicates that ambition of both main parties for a higher minimum wage.
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"But more work will be need to get everyone else’s pay packets beyond where they were before the crisis."
In August, we revealed the best paid jobs that don't require a degree - and some of them pay up to £56,000 a year.
We also spoke to the experts to find out exactly how you should ask for a pay rise to see the best results.
Mum, 41, and dad, 39, RETIRE after saving £1.6million through clever investments and second jobs as Uber drivers
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