UK vs US Salary Comparison (Graduate Jobs) #shorts

How does your salary rank against the US?

We were shocked when we saw this 👀

#shortsvideo #shortsfeed #news #jobs #costofliving #tiktok

[Samtreee]

Yeah don't work in a skilled job in the UK, we're so badly paid vs the US of A.

[Niranna]

I’m pretty the ones for UK are starting salaries- unless these aren’t per year 👀

[GarryGri]

It doesn't say what they are in!? Are the UK ones in pounds sterling and the US is US dollars? If so that will further skew the results.

I had a quick look at US vs UK average salaries recently and found the following...

I looked at the average (median) household income for 2025.
The 'median' value being the most useful for showing actual income of 'normal' people, as it negates the billionaire /trillionaire outliers that pull the average wage per country artificially up.
So this is showing 'normal' peoples income by not including the 1 percenters in both countries.

Ok, so first off I looked at the UK, a country often seen as relatively close to America in many ways, but very different in others.
The average median full-time salary in the UK is currently £37, 430 ($49, 673.86) for 2025.
The average median salary over-all in the UK is currently £31, 602 ($41, 939.44) for 2025. This includes all types of employment.

Next the US:
The average median full-time salary in the US is currently $59, 228 as of the first quarter of 2025. This is notably down from $61, 984 as of the last quarter of 2024.
The average median salary over-all in the US is currently $47, 960 for 2025. Again, this includes all types of employment.

[Yes, the median values shown here are significantly lower than other 'average' values you may have seen for the US (and UK). As those also include the ultra-rich 1%, which artificially pulls the US average up significantly and is not helpful when looking at normal peoples income.]

So we have the following averages, converted to US Dollars for simplicity, for 2005:
Full-Time Employment for the UK = $49, 673.86
Full-Time Employment for the US = $59, 228
All Employment in the UK = $41, 939.44
All Employment in the US = $47, 960
So the average US citizen in full-time employment is being paid $9, 555 (16%) more on average than UK citizens per annum.
And the average US citizen in any type of employment is being paid $6, 021 (12.5%) more on average than UK citizens per annum.

But in addition to this you also have to adjust for the difference in 'basic' cost of living for each country.
With the cost of living in the USA being (generally) around 15% higher than the UK overall. Although in some places this may be much higher in the US and doesn't include things like education fees or medical payments/bills.

So in real-terms (e.g. adjusted for the cost of living increase) the average person in the US in full-time employment makes around 1% more per Anum that the average UK person.
And for the average overall pay, in real-terms, the average person in the US makes 2.5% less that the average UK person.

Of course individual circumstances can be way off the median average for both the US and the UK. And some jobs do genuinely seem to pay more that the averadge difference in the US. This is just a generalisation saying what it is saying and not making any clames about anything.

[adamd]

Aye and the prices in the US make those salaries a lot less💀.