Average Salaries Around the World
Official salary data by country and profession — plus free calculators to work out exactly what you take home after tax.
Finding a reliable average salary by country is harder than it should be. Most sites publish self-reported figures scraped from job boards, where people round up, quote packages instead of base pay, and nobody checks. We do it differently: every figure on this site comes from the national statistics office of the country in question — the ONS in the UK, the BLS in the United States, INE in Spain, INSEE in France, Destatis in Germany. We show the source and the reference year next to every number, and we use the median wherever a country publishes one, because averages get dragged upward by a small number of very high earners and stop describing the typical worker.
Gross pay is only half the question, though. What you actually keep depends on the tax system you’re in, and the gap between the two is bigger than most people expect. The two calculators below use current official rates — 2026/27 for the UK, tax year 2026 for the US — to turn a headline salary into the figure that reaches your bank account.
US Take-Home Pay Calculator (2026)
Enter your gross salary to estimate your net pay after federal tax, state tax and FICA.
| Gross salary | $0 |
| Federal income tax | $0 |
| State income tax | $0 |
| Social Security (6.2%) | $0 |
| Medicare (1.45%) | $0 |
| Total deductions | $0 |
| Effective tax rate | 0% |
This is an estimate for informational purposes only and is not tax advice. Federal income tax and FICA use official 2026 IRS and SSA figures. Every state is calculated using its real 2026 rate schedule and its own standard deduction or personal exemption — no flat approximations. State rates and brackets are as of 1 January 2026 (source: Tax Foundation, compiled from state statutes, forms and instructions). A few states index their bracket thresholds annually and had not published 2026 figures at compilation, so those reflect the most recent official schedule. Not included: city and county income taxes, state tax credits, itemised deductions, dependant exemptions, and state disability or paid-leave payroll levies (notably California's 1.1% and Washington's 0.58%). For an exact figure, consult the IRS, your state tax authority or a tax professional.
Global Salary Data 2026
A single reference page with average and median salary data for 16 countries, 18 US professions and 8 UK skilled trades — every figure taken from a national statistics office, with the source and reference year shown. Free to cite.
Explore Salaries by Country
Median gross salary, converted to USD for comparison. Every figure comes from that country’s national statistics office — full sources and local-currency amounts are in the salary data hub.
Where Our Data Comes From
Every figure comes from a national statistics office or government labour agency — never from job-board averages or self-reported surveys. See our full methodology.
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