Official ONS figures show steady regular wage growth in the three months to July 2026, but total earnings including bonuses have eased to 3.9%, down from 4.2% in the previous period.
Regular pay growth held firm at 3.5 per cent in the three months to July 2026, according to the Office for National Statistics — unchanged from the previous three-month period and the fifth consecutive period at broadly that level. Total earnings including bonuses came in at 3.9 per cent, down from 4.2 per cent, the figures show, with the fall driven by weaker bonus payments rather than any slip in underlying wages.
The ONS posted the headline numbers on Tuesday, drawing on its Average Weekly Earnings series, which covers employees in Great Britain and measures money paid before tax and other deductions.
For context, regular earnings growth was 3.4 per cent and total earnings 4.3 per cent in March to May 2026 — meaning the direction of travel for total pay has been gradually downward through the summer. Average weekly total earnings stood at around £749 and regular earnings at around £699 in May 2026.
Early PAYE Real Time Information estimates put median monthly pay at about £2,642 in July 2026, up 4.2 per cent on July 2025 — a somewhat stronger reading than the AWE headline rate, though RTI figures are labelled early estimates and subject to revision. Across NUTS3 regions, median monthly pay ranged from roughly £2,304 to about £4,016, illustrating how sharply earnings vary by area.
Kent sits within the South East, a region where earnings typically run above the UK average — but that masks real variation between commuter towns and lower-paid coastal districts.
For Kent households, the numbers carry a practical edge. ONS figures show real regular pay grew by 0.6 per cent and total real pay by 0.9 per cent in May to July 2026 on a CPIH basis, suggesting wages are still edging ahead of inflation in real terms. Workers in bonus-heavy roles — financial services and professional services commuters into London among them — may feel the total earnings slowdown more directly. Local employers in logistics, tourism, retail, and public services face the familiar tension between moderate pay growth and recruitment pressure, chiefly if competing sectors or regions offer more.
Payrolled employee numbers across Great Britain stood at around 30.3 million in July 2026, with an annual fall of roughly 94,000 — about 0.3 per cent — suggesting the labour market is not adding headcount at pace. The ONS notes that AWE excludes self-employed workers, so earnings trends for that group are not captured in these figures.
Source: @ONS