Employee Earnings in Northern Ireland: October 2026
Date published:
Employee Earnings in Northern Ireland, from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026, was published today by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency. The report provides provisional estimates for 2026 and final revised estimates for 2025.
Weekly earnings increased over the year
- Median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees (“weekly earnings”) in NI were £754 in April 2026, an increase of £44 (6.1%) from £711 in 2025. This was the sixth consecutive annual increase.
- UK weekly earnings were £811 in April 2026, an increase of 5.8% (£45) from 2025. This was the third largest annual percentage increase on record, after 2023 (7.0%) and 2024 (6.0%). Weekly earnings increased across all 12 UK regions in 2026. NI remained around the middle of the regional earnings rankings, with median weekly earnings 7.0% below the UK median.
- Since 2021, earnings growth in NI has remained significantly above the longer-term average. While weekly earnings increased by 2.2% per year on average between 2006 and 2020, annual growth since 2021 has averaged 6.1%. This broadly reflects the strong earnings growth observed across the UK in recent years.
- Real weekly earnings (adjusted for inflation) in NI increased by 3.1% in 2026, following rises of 2.8% in 2025 and 0.9% in 2024. These three consecutive annual increases have more than offset the declines recorded in 2022 (3.7%) and 2023 (0.7%). Real earnings are now at their highest level in the 20-year series, standing 7.1% above their pre-pandemic level in 2019.
- For the UK as a whole, real weekly earnings increased by 2.8% over the year.
Private sector pay growing faster than public sector pay
- Over the past year, private sector weekly earnings in NI increased by 6.8%, compared with a 5.0% increase in the public sector. This follows particularly strong growth (9.3%) in public sector earnings in 2025, which partly reflected the implementation of backdated multi-year pay settlements. Despite slower growth in 2026, public sector weekly earnings (£840) remained higher than private sector earnings (£708).
- Real earnings in the private sector increased by 3.7% in the year to 2026, outpacing the 1.9% increase recorded in the public sector. Compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019, private sector real earnings have increased by 12.3%, while public sector real earnings have grown by 2.0%. Private sector real earnings have reached their highest level on record.
Proportion of low-paid jobs in NI increased but remains close to record low
- Low-paid jobs accounted for 4.0% of employee jobs in 2026, up 0.5 percentage points from the record low of 3.5% in 2025. Despite remaining significantly below the 26.0% recorded in 2016 (when the National Living Wage was introduced), NI had the highest proportion of low-paid jobs of the 12 UK regions.
- The proportion of eligible employee jobs paid below the applicable National Living Wage (NLW) or National Minimum Wage (NMW) was estimated at 1.0% in 2026. This was similar to the revised 2025 estimate (0.9%) and below the 2024 rate (1.6%). It also remained close to the pre-COVID level in 2019 (1.1%) and significantly below the peaks recorded in 2020 (11.2%) and 2021 (5.8%), when earnings were affected by furlough.
Gender pay gap in NI in favour of males
- In 2026, the gender pay gap in NI stood at 7.1% in favour of men when considering all employees, regardless of working pattern, meaning that for every £1 earned by men, women earned approximately 93p. This gap narrowed slightly from 7.4% in 2025.
- In comparison, females in the UK earned 12.3% less than males on average in 2026, down from 12.9% in 2025. The gender pay gap has narrowed considerably in both regions over the last two decades, falling from 14.0% to 7.1% in NI and from 22.2% to 12.3% in the UK since 2006.
Annual earnings in NI lower than in the UK
- Median annual earnings for full-time employees in NI were £38,200 in 2026, approximately £2,700 lower than the UK median of £40,900. The highest 10% of full-time earners in NI earned at least £68,400.
Notes to editors:
- The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is a UK wide survey of employers that provides information on hourly, weekly and annual earnings by gender, work pattern, industry and occupation. The sample comprises approximately 1% of all jobs in NI covered by Pay As You Earn (PAYE) schemes. This year’s results relate to the pay-week (or other pay period if the employee was paid less frequently) which included the reference date 22nd April 2026.
- The headline measure of earnings from ASHE is median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees and is referred to as ‘weekly earnings’ for ease of reporting. A range of hourly, weekly and annual measures relating to full- and part-time employees are available alongside the main bulletin.
- ASHE data are used by those who have an interest in NI economic and labour market policy. The figures are widely used to chart changes in NI earnings levels over time and relative to the rest of the UK. Government Departments require a variety of indicators, which measure the state of the labour market, including earnings across industries and occupations as well as for the public and private sector.
- The mean and the median measure different things and either can be appropriate depending on what the user is trying to measure. The mean measures the average amount earned by individuals, but in a skewed distribution such as earnings this measure is susceptible to small numbers of very high earners. The median measures the amount earned by the average individual, i.e. the level of earnings at which half the population are above and half the population are below. A visual explanation of this (‘Why we use the median in earnings statistics’) is available. Please note that changes in median values for sub-sectors of the population are not necessarily additive at the population level.
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) definitions of low pay and high pay are used. Low pay is defined as the value that is two-thirds of the UK median hourly earnings (e.g. £19.00 × 2/3 = £12.67 in 2026). High pay is defined as the value that is 1.5 times the UK median hourly earnings (e.g. £19.00 × 1.5 = £28.50 in 2026).
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- Feedback is welcomed and should be addressed to: Responsible statistician: Brian Grogan, Economic & Labour Market Statistics (ELMS), brian.grogan@nisra.gov.uk or Tel: 028 9052 9311.