Junior employees are the lifeblood of a business. An effective entry-level hire brings energy and fresh perspectives while freeing senior staff to capitalize on their own experience and expertise.
But how do you put a price on new talent — particularly when the company must pay for training a young professional who may end up moving elsewhere to further their career?
It isn’t an easy balance to find. For one thing, new entrants rightly feel they deserve a fair salary that covers the rising cost of living and reflects the work they’ve done to reach this point. Unsurprisingly, figures show that graduates expect significantly more than what they’re currently offered. And when they look overseas to the U.S. and northern Europe, they see that UK businesses are lagging when setting entry-level salaries.
Meanwhile, businesses face their own rising costs while small business growth has slowed. Companies are struggling to fill vacancies in a tight labour market, forced to balance enticing starting salaries against the demands of a recovering economy.
Of course, these factors are complicated by the UK’s diverse business landscape, with median salaries and the cost of living varying dramatically from one business hub to another. So, where are companies paying the best entry-level salaries compared to local conditions? BusinessFinancing.co.uk analysed data from the Office for National Statistics and Indeed to find out.
What We Did
We used Office for National Statistics data to determine the median local wage for every UK town and city with more than 50,000 people. Next, we conducted keyword searches on Indeed to find the number of entry-level jobs in each location. Finally, we used the median local wage as a minimum wage filter and calculated the percentage of entry-level jobs above the local median salary in each location.
Key Findings
- Dundee is the UK city where companies pay the best entry-level salaries, with 42.67% of junior jobs paying above the local median salary.
- In London, just 11.58% of entry-level jobs pay above the local median, the worst figure for any UK city.
- In Wales, Swansea has the most high-paying entry-level jobs (36.67%), and Cardiff has the fewest (25.00%).
- Derry (29.03%) has the best entry-level salaries in Northern Ireland, and Lisburn (10.53%) has the worst.
The UK’s Best and Worst Cities for Highly Paid Entry-Level Jobs
The UK cities with the highest proportion of entry-level jobs paid above the local median salary are largely clustered around the Midlands of England. Just three of the top ten cities buck this trend: Swansea (36.67% of junior jobs above local median) in Wales, Plymouth (35.56%) in the southwest of England and Dundee (42.67%) in the east of Scotland. The latter is the UK’s best city for highly paid entry jobs.
The overall median salary in Dundee is £29,997, but more than two-fifths of new entrant roles are paid above this rate. The city’s business outlook is resurging following initiatives such as Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc, an innovation partnership that has generated millions of pounds in sales and development grants, as well as creating new jobs. The V&A Dundee, Scotland’s only location of the famed designed museum, opened in 2018, likewise bringing millions into the local economy while further establishing the city as a hub for design, tech and future industry.
However, low local salaries, in general, are also a factor in these rankings. The overall median salary across the ten cities with the best entry-level salaries is £32,575, with just two cities paying over £32k on median, making the bar lower for an entry-level job to be considered ‘highly paid.’ Among the ten worst cities for entry-level wages (below), the overall median salary is £35,273, all of the median salaries are over £32k, and three are over £40k. The geographic weight of these ten is distinctly more southern and exclusively English.
The worst city of all for new entrants is London, where just 11.58% of junior roles are paid more than the overall local median salary of £41,853. London is in its own economic universe, as illustrated by the fact that the market with the second worst city for entry-level pay, York, offers above-average pay to 20.00% of new entrants. Junior lawyers at big firms in the capital might expect up to £150,000 a year since they can quickly bill many times that figure on behalf of their firms, but junior doctors may earn barely one-third of this figure.
“It is hard to argue that junior doctors are less valuable workers than corporate lawyers and do not deserve equal treatment,” writes John Gapper at the Financial Times, “but they will not get it because there is no higher bidding alternative to the NHS. The lesson is rather stark: if you are a professional, work in a sector that competes globally or you will find yourself making much less money than you could.”
The Best Towns and Cities for Highly Paid Entry-Level Jobs in Every UK Region
Next, we segregated our figures by region to find the best and worst locations for entry-level jobs in each part of the UK, including towns with a population above 50,000.
For example, the two largest cities in Wales are respectively the worst (Cardiff, 25.00%) and best Swansea (36.67%) regional options for new entrants. Salaries are higher in Cardiff in general, and the city is ranked second best in the UK for the cost of living for young people. However, Amazon’s investment in Swansea, alongside council development of the local tech sector, has seen “London-esque” salaries reach the city for those with the qualifications.
The difference between top and bottom cities is far more marked in the Southeast region of England, where Woking (6.67%) has the joint fewest high-paying jobs for new entrants, but nearby Gosport (36.67%) has significantly more. However, Woking consistently ranks near the top of the UK Vitality Index based on the state of local economy, business, health and environment. The town could be among the biggest beneficiaries of local growth in green jobs as the town seeks to redefine its industrial ties to the automotive and energy industries — but it may need to do more to attract the talent that this development requires.
New Talent, New Opportunity
In a tight and unpredictable economy, putting cash on the table to secure new talent is not something most small businesses will do lightly. But while matching graduate salary needs and expectations may ultimately prove profitable — not to mention ethical — it is not the only way to attract talented junior employees.
Particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic reshuffle and ‘Great Resignation,’ businesses have added leeway to offer flexible work patterns and job definitions, different forms of support and development, and dynamic paths to promotion and career advancement. When the dream recruit is sitting opposite the interview panel, the most effective question to ask might be: “What can we do for you?”
Methodology
We started by building a list of UK cities and towns above 50K population, based on data from the UK Government. We also gathered the median local wage for each location, based on data from the Office for National Statistics.
Next, we conducted searches inside Indeed using keywords related to entry-level jobs and counted the number of jobs available in every UK location.
These are the keywords we used:
- Entry level
- Assistant
- Trainee
- Graduate
- Junior
Then, we added the median local wage as a minimum wage filter for each location and recorded the count of entry-level jobs above the median salary for each area. We used these counts to calculate the percentage of entry-level jobs above the median salary in each city/town.
Locations with fewer than 30 entry-level job ads were removed from the dataset. This study was completed in August 2024.
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