In a new analysis, it has been revealed that HR professionals are earning less than the average UK salary, in all but one region.
New research from Ezra, a digital coaching platform, has shown that workers within the HR sector around the UK are earning less than the average salary.
Across the entire UK, it was found that these workers are taking home an average net salary of £23,584, -6 per cent lower than the wider UK average of £25,123.
This gap in earnings was heightened in some regional areas. Wales, for example, was found to have the worst rate of pay for HR with the average professional in the sector making -17 per cent less (£18,161) than the wider average earnings in Wales (£21,869).
Furthermore, in England, the South-East and East Midlands also saw a similar pay deficit. There was a -16 per cent difference between the average earnings on offer in the sector and the wider average income for both regions.
However, the North-East of England was the only region to see HR professionals earning more than the national average salary. There, the average HR professional currently earns £22,483, 2 per cent higher than the regional average earnings of £22,106.
In addition, this region has also seen the greatest increase in terms of rate of pay within the HR sector over the last five years. As such, the wages for HR professionals have grown by 15 per cent during this period.
Encouragingly, this was also seen within other regional areas such as the West Midlands (+13 per cent) and Scotland (+11.4 per cent) over the same five year time-frame.
Nick Goldberg, founder of Ezra, commented:
HR as an industry has become one of the foundations on which business is built and so it’s surprising to see that wages trail the wider average earnings in all but one area of the UK.
The positive trend is that take-home pay of many in the sector has increased over the last five years and this should help address the balance.
With such drastic changes to the way we work currently taking place across the board, we should see the need for HR increase as businesses look to adjust appropriately and professionally in what is a challenging climate.
As they do, the requirement for HR expertise to aid in this adjustment should help boost both their value to UK businesses, as well as the salary they are paid for imparting this knowledge.
*To obtain this analysis, Ezra sourced the average salary data from ONS statistics. Ezra then analysed earnings data looking at the average net income across each region of the UK and then comparing it to the average wage earned by HR and Industrial Relations Officers.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
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