Directors and chief executives of major organisations are still the UK’s biggest earners, making on average £171,509 a year, research will reveal this month.
The pay of top-ranking professionals has risen from the 2005 average of £167,382, a rise of 2.5%.
However, the occupation in which pay has taken the greatest leap is brokerage, the analysis of official statistics will show.
Brokers – who act as mediators between buyers and sellers in financial transactions – now make on average £80,233, compared to £64,333 the year before last – an increase of £15,900.
Angela Knight, chief executive of the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers, said that in corporate brokerage, performance has been particularly good in the last year, which has resulted in boosted earnings.
“It is a sign of the market performing well,” she said. “When something is performance-linked, you know that if you don’t perform well, you don’t get the money.”
Brokerage is listed as the third highest paid job behind medical practitioners, who earn on average £81,744 – a jump of £13,800.
Fourth in the list came financial managers and chartered secretaries, who earn £79,545, followed by senior civil servants, who make £71,824, and pilots who bring in £61,585.
Among the lowest-paid jobs were retail cashiers and check-out operators, florists, bar staff and waiters, hairdressers and laundry workers, who all earn between £10,000 and £12,000.
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The figures for mean pay rates for full-time jobs last year were collected by the Office for National Statistics and analysed by the GMB union.
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