Our salary data methodology is simple to state and harder to follow than most sites bother with: every figure comes from a national statistics office, and nothing gets published that can’t be traced back to one. Average Salary World is an independent site publishing salary data by country and profession, alongside free take-home pay calculators for the UK and the United States. It exists because finding out what a job actually pays — and what you actually keep — is harder than it should be.
Most salary figures online are self-reported. Job boards build their averages from what users type into a form, where people round up, quote total packages instead of base pay, and describe the job title they want rather than the one they have. Nobody verifies any of it. We built this site to do the opposite.
Every figure comes from a national statistics office
Every figure on this site is traced to the government body that measures wages in the country concerned:
- United States — Bureau of Labor Statistics (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics), plus the Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis for household and per-capita figures
- United Kingdom — Office for National Statistics (Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings), plus HMRC and NHS Agenda for Change pay scales where relevant
- Spain — Instituto Nacional de Estadística
- France — INSEE
- Germany — Destatis
- Italy — ISTAT
- Singapore — Ministry of Manpower
Other countries follow the same rule: the national statistics agency first, and nothing published unless it can be traced back to one. Our salary data hub shows the source and reference year beside every number, and that page is free for anyone to cite.
Why we prefer the median to the average
Where a country publishes both, we use the median. An average wage is pulled upward by a small number of very high earners, which makes it a poor description of what a typical worker actually earns. The gap is not small: in several countries the mean sits ten to twenty percent above the median, which is the difference between a figure that describes most people and one that describes almost nobody.
Where only an average is available, we say so rather than quietly presenting it as a median. Where we have converted a figure into US dollars for comparison, we use a fixed reference date rather than a live rate, so the tables stay internally consistent instead of drifting against each other.
How our calculators work
Our two take-home pay calculators are built on official rate schedules, not approximations.
The US calculator uses 2026 IRS federal brackets and the Social Security wage cap published by the SSA, and calculates state income tax using the real 2026 rate schedule and standard deduction for every state that levies one, plus the District of Columbia. Most free calculators apply a single flat percentage per state, which overstates the bill for anyone in a progressive state. Where a state’s cities or counties levy their own income tax — New York City, most of Ohio and Maryland, much of Pennsylvania and Kentucky — the calculator says so beneath your result rather than pretending the number is complete.
The UK calculator uses 2026/27 income tax and National Insurance rates and current student loan thresholds, and distinguishes between a standard workplace pension and salary sacrifice, because the two are treated differently for National Insurance and the difference is worth real money.
State tax schedules come from the Tax Foundation’s annual compilation of state statutes, forms and instructions, which is the most complete single source for all fifty-one jurisdictions. Federal figures come directly from the IRS and SSA.
When the data changes
Official wage statistics are released on a schedule, and we update against it rather than continuously. The BLS publishes its main occupational wage estimates in May; the ONS publishes ASHE in the autumn; other agencies fall in between. Tax rates and thresholds change at the start of each tax year, and several states publish their inflation-indexed brackets only late in the year they apply to. Where that is the case, we use the most recent officially published schedule and say so, instead of guessing at figures that do not exist yet.
What we won’t do
We won’t publish a number we cannot trace to a source. When official data is thin — regional breakdowns for small occupational groups are often suppressed for sample-size reasons — we either label the figure as an estimate or leave it out. We would rather have a gap than a number that looks authoritative and isn’t.
We also correct things. When a figure on this site turns out to be wrong, it gets fixed and the correction stands rather than being quietly overwritten.
Independence
Average Salary World has no affiliation with any employer, recruiter, training provider or government agency. Nobody pays to appear in our tables. If that changes — through advertising or affiliate arrangements — it will be disclosed clearly on the page where it applies.
Questions, corrections or data requests: get in touch.