Want to boost your income? The 20 postcodes with the highest average salaries

Where you live and work will have a big impact on the size of your pay slip each month, new research suggests.

There are all sorts of postcode lotteries in the UK, where the area in which you live has an impact on your finances.

When you’re taking out an insurance policy, for example, your location will impact the size of your premiums, while your choice of broadband or energy supplier can be impacted by your address.

But perhaps the biggest postcode lottery of all covers our pay packets.

Because certain areas enjoy much higher annual pay than others.

The postcodes with the biggest pay slips

This is made clear by some new research from job site Adzuna.

The site has analysed the job adverts from employers, calculating the average salaries for postcode areas. 

Let’s take a look at how the top 20 postcodes break down:

It’s perhaps not hugely surprising, but worth noting nonetheless, just how significant the Capital is ‒ more than half the spots are taken up either by London postcodes or areas popular with commuters.

Outside of London, Leeds is a headline performer on salaries.

Adzuna pointed to the fact that the city is home to big financial names like first direct and Yorkshire Bank, while Asda, Evri and Channel 4 all have their headquarters in the city.

Cambridge also stands out for the salaries on offer, with its burgeoning reputation for technology and life sciences, as well as Bristol, which has become an engineering, technology and finance hub.

Do I need to work in the office?

One element to bear in mind with jobs currently is the extent to which remote working is possible.

The pandemic may be largely behind us, but it has left the legacy of many workers still spending at least some of the week working from home rather than in a central office.

That balance between office-based and remote working is an important one to bear in mind when you’re job hunting.

After all, if your boss only needs you in the office one day a week it might be worth signing up for a post that’s a longer commute but delivers a larger pay packet, than sticking solely to those within closer distances.

There is the trade-off off though that unless that breakdown is included in your contract, you run the risk of a new boss deciding that actually you’re needed in the office all week, leaving you stuck with that longer commute on a daily basis. 

How far does your pay rise stretch?

Perhaps the biggest reason for changing jobs is to land a pay rise.

In pure cash terms, it’s been a big year for pay rises.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that in the three months to September, average total pay (which includes bonuses) was up by 7.9%, for example, and that sort of figure is not all that dissimilar from previous quarters.

The issue has been that while that’s a big jump in cash terms, even if you land such a pay rise you may not be any better off.

That’s because of the impact of inflation, which has been persistently high for some time.

It has meant that the real terms value of those pay hikes has been eroded away, given the higher outgoings on bills and unavoidable spending.

While inflation has dropped, it still remains higher than the Bank of England would like.

As a result, when the consumer price index measurement is taken into account, the growth in total pay is just 1.4%. Better than nothing, sure, but not exactly anything to write home about.