HR manager salary in the UK
ONS data for April 2025 · Page updated
Human resource managers and directors earn well above the UK median. You'll often be negotiating with people who know how pay bands work as well as you do, which makes clear market evidence especially important.
- Median full-time pay
- £57,529
- 25th percentile
- £43,676
- 75th percentile
- £78,677
- Change on a year earlier
- +8.3%
How pay is spread
Line: 10th to 90th percentile. Bar: the middle half of earners (25th to 75th). Mark and label: median. Where ONS doesn't publish the 90th percentile, the line stops at the highest published point.
| Full-time annual pay | HR manager | All UK jobs |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | £32,714 | £23,990 |
| 25th percentile | £43,676 | £29,262 |
| Median | £57,529 | £39,039 |
| 75th percentile | £78,677 | £54,009 |
| 90th percentile | – | £76,903 |
| Mean | £69,039 | £48,512 |
– ONS doesn't publish this figure because the sample is too small to be reliable.
ONS classifies this role as “Human resource managers and directors” (SOC 2020 code 1136). Figures cover full-time employees across the whole UK, at every level of seniority, so a senior role in London or at a large employer will usually sit above the median. Pay by region for individual occupations isn't published reliably at city level.
What HR managers can negotiate
Use the employer's own framework. HR teams usually run job evaluation and pay benchmarking. Ask which grade the role is evaluated at and which benchmark the band is based on, then argue within that framework.
CIPD and scope. CIPD membership level and the size of the workforce you'll support are the main drivers of seniority. Put both in your counter.
Benefits you'll administer. You'll know the benefits package well. If base salary is fixed by policy, negotiate holiday, pension or flexibility within what the policy allows.
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Other roles
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025 (provisional), Table 14.7a (occupation, SOC 2020). Gross annual pay for full-time employee jobs, April 2025. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. See how we use this data.