Public Sector Salary Survey

The 2023 UK Public Sector Salary Guide

Looking to benchmark your team with sector specific data?

Our UK Public Sector salary guide has been developed to provide more accurate benchmarking for public sector organisations, with access to proportionate salary information, talent trends and hiring advice.

Developed in partnership with a market leading data provider, we’ve assessed over 100,000 public sector jobs advertised over the last 12 months, to provide you accurate data points on UK salary ranges, averages and expectations for permanent, contract and interim positions across the UK public sector.

The guide offers insights for permanent and contract positions inside and outside London, across the following discipline areas:

Accounting & Finance
Business Support
Human Resources
Legal
Marketing

Policy & Governance
Procurement
Technology
Sales & Customer Services

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Key Salary & Compensation insights in UK

SS Blocks

%

of businesses are giving pay rises in 2024

%

of professionals are looking for a new job in 2024

2.3 Years

Average tenure of professionals

%

of professionals are confident about job opportunities in this sector

%

of professionals are expecting a pay rise in 2024

Hiring Manager? Benchmark your teams salaries

If you’re growing your team or simply need to retain the talent you have, the Salary Survey gives you the insights you need to have the right team in place to keep your business moving forward.

Find out my team benchmark

Candidate? Find out your salary with an individual salary guide

Whether you’re looking for a new role or preparing for your end-of-year appraisal, the Salary Survey will arm you with everything you need to know to get what you deserve.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I use a salary guide?

To find out what a reasonable salary is for the job and industry you are in or are thinking of moving into, use a Salary Guide to discover the average pay for someone with a similar level of experience as you and view your earning potential.
What are the benefits of using a salary benchmarking guide?

Whether you're due a pay rise, promotion, or bonus, a Salary Guide allows you to review accurate market salary and pay averages to see how you can compare to others in your sector. Having accurate data-led salary information will help identify exactly how much you should be earning so you ca prepare to negotiate your salary in your next performance review.
When is the best time to negotiate my salary?

Salary reviews often take place during the annual and half-year employee performance review periods. Make sure you take this into consideration and time your negotiation right. If the annual pay review is in January, and you call the meeting for February, you're likely to have missed the boat. In such a case, November would be the most suitable time here.
What is the salary benchmarking process and why is it important?

Salary benchmarking is the process of comparing salaries across the market for a particular job and providing a range and average for a particular role which can help guide an employer's decision-making on pay or bonuses during appraisal period or when making a new hire. The benchmarking process is essential for assessing and comparing pay and compensation packages in relation to the market and of those provided by competitors. Pay and compensation benchmarking can also provide significant competitor advantage, through the retention and attraction of top talent and enhancing an organisations reputation.
How to do salary benchmarking?

In partnership with a data collection specialist, a benchmarking tool offers a fully comprehensive list of salary ranges and averages based on location, experience level and more. You can view the latest salary range and averages in the 2023 salary guide.
How should employers evaluate employee pay & compensation during performance reviews?

Salary and compensation reviews often take place during the annual and half-year employee performance reviews. In tangent with the employee performance scoring, you can use a salary benchmarking tool to inform the pay and compensation review process. The tool also gives good insight into market trends in-demand skill sets. So, use performance reviews to see where the employee fits relative to the external jobs market and avoid losing in-demand talent through effective pay and compensation strategies.

Looking for something even more bespoke?

Accurately budgeting for headcount spend requires access to specific salary and remuneration data that's completely bespoke to your business.

Based on your specific sub-sector, job role or location criteria, investing in a bespoke benchmarking report gives you access to upper, average and lower salary/contractor rate limits, monetary and non-monetary benefits data and data-backed recommendations for your business. These can help you to:

Increase retention rates
Develop a competitive EVP
Attract a wider talent pool
Make reliable decisions

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Bespoke salary benchmarking

Using a combination of our own data, publicly available insights and our recruitment experts, we build bespoke overviews of the salaries and benefits required to attract talent.

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