Solicitors and lawyers salary in the UK
SOC 2020 code 2412 · full-time employees · reference year 2025Provisional
Median annual pay (gross)
£56,977
Mean annual pay (gross)
£73,424
The median for this occupation is 1.5× the UK median for all employees (£39,039) in the same 2025 release.
Pay range
| 10th percentile | £29,279 |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | £42,015 |
| Median (50th) | £56,977 |
| 75th percentile | £77,509 |
| 90th percentile | Not published |
"Not published" means the statistics office withheld the estimate because the sample was too small to be reliable. We do not estimate a replacement figure.
About this occupation
Solicitors and lawyers advise clients and handle legal work in private practice, in-house legal teams and government. Barristers and judges are classified separately in SOC 2020.
The mean sits far above the median, reflecting very high pay at large City of London firms compared with high-street and legal-aid practice. ONS suppresses the top percentile estimate for reliability reasons.
Source and notes
- Office for National Statistics, ASHE Table 14.7a (full-time, gross annual pay), 2025 provisional.
- Gross annual pay for full-time employees on adult rates whose pay was not affected by absence. Figures for 2025 are provisional and are revised by ONS the following year.
- ISCO-08 group 2: Professionals — a broad grouping for loose cross-country orientation only, not an exact match to other countries' job titles.
- Official figures above are gross (before tax). The optional Net view is an estimate: it uses the OECD Taxing Wages model for a single person without children. The percentile range always shows gross pay.
- No official breakdown by experience level exists for this data, so none is shown.
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