UK regular wage growth rises to 3.7%

Regular earnings growth — excluding bonuses — held at 3.7% in the three months to August 2026, the ONS confirmed in its Labour market overview published in October 2026. The figures show that growth in total pay, which includes bonuses, slipped to the same 3.7% rate, down from 3.9% in the previous three-month period.

In real terms, after adjusting for inflation using the CPIH measure, regular pay grew by just 0.6 per cent and total pay by 0.7 per cent. So while workers are, on average, earning more than a year ago, the gains above rising prices remain modest.

The ONS noted that regular earnings growth had remained relatively stable across the six consecutive three-month periods before this release, after slowing for around a year. That steadiness makes the latest figure less a sharp turn than a continuation of a plateau.

The data are drawn from HM Revenue and Customs’ Pay As You Earn Real Time Information system — which covers the full population of payrolled employees rather than a sample — and the underlying statistics carry accreditation from the Office for Statistics Regulation, confirmed in July 2025.

One figure to treat carefully: a separate Great Britain average weekly earnings release reported 3.5 per cent regular earnings growth and 4.1 per cent total earnings growth for its own covered period. Those numbers should not be read alongside the June-to-August figures as though they measure the same thing.

Wage growth at this level remains relevant to Bank of England interest-rate decisions, though the national averages do not reveal how individual sectors or lower-paid workers fared compared with the headline rate.