A new survey has found that pay for people working in HR roles in much of the UK lags well behind London, by as much as 24%. The annual HR Salary Survey by Croner Reward found the average median salary for an HR professional in in the UK is £47,919 compared to £77,149 in Central London and the overall London average of £52,231. In the regions the biggest disparity was between London and Northern Ireland, with those working in the South West and North East being the furthest behind in England.

Regional Breakdown – Average Median Salary

Average UK HR Salary: £47,919

  • All London : £52,231
  • East Anglia: £46,002
  • East Midlands: £46,002
  • North East: £45,043
  • North West: £51,273
  • Northern Ireland: £44,564
  • Scotland: £49,835
  • South East: £49,356
  • South West: £45,043
  • West Midlands: £45,523

Croner Reward gathered the data by surveying 316 organisations with 1,427 job roles, which shows a stark contrast in the amount of pay you receive depending on where you live. The survey clearly highlights that pay for HR professionals in all regions of the UK is well below that of the same type of role in central London and London as a whole.

This is largely because the cost of living, such as house prices and transport, is so much higher in London compared to other parts of the UK. Despite these factors HR professionals’ salaries in the UK are still up to 24% behind those of London and we only expect this gap to widen.

Across the board, of the different HR disciplines, those working as health and safety managers are the best paid – on average 11% above the average for middle managers in the survey.

At the other end of the scale, those working in recruitment are the lowest paid – being 2.5% behind the overall average. Of the different sectors HR professionals work in, directors in the voluntary sector earn over £20,000 less than their private and public sector counterparts.