Average full time pay in the City of London has smashed through the £100,000 barrier for the first time following the return of spectacular mega banker bonuses.
Latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that full time workers in the Square Mile were paid an average of £103,352 in 2025, an inflation busting rise of 10.6% from last year’s figure of £93,438.
If part time workers are included average pay in the City for all 521,000 employees rose by 11.1% to £99,911, also a record.
Pay in the City has been boosted in recent years by soaring rewards for lawyers, particularly those working for US firms, the increasing number of tech firms clustering in the Square Mile, and resurgent bonuses for high flying bankers and traders.
A cap on banker bonuses slapped on the City by the European Union in 2014 in the wake of the financial crisis was scrapped by financial regulators in October 2023 to make London more competitive on the world stage.
The cap set a maximum limit for bonus payments of 200% of the fixed salary. Following its removal a number of leading investment banks said they would restore big bonuses for top performers. Goldman Sachs allowed employees classified as “material risk takers” to earn up to 25 times their fixed salary.
Rival Wall Street bank JP Morgan set its new bonus limit at ten times their fixed salary for its top bankers in London.
Last week the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority went further by speeding up the time that top bankers can receive their bonuses in another watering down of post financial crash restrictions.
Meanwhile City law firms have massive hiked pay for young recruits as they compete to snap up the best talent. Last year Magic Circle firm Freshfields increased its newly qualified lawyers’ salaries from £125,000 to £150,000 while the top US law firms pay as much as £180,000.
The tech sector, which is increasingly focused in the City, is also routinely paying six figure salaries to recruit the best staff. A recent survey conducted by SPG Resourcing reveals that tech professionals in London can earn an average annual salary of £120,000.
Average pay in the City is skewed by the huge reward packages handed to top performers. Today’s figures from the latest edition of the ONS’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings show that pay for the top 10% of full time earners averages £186,018.
However median full time pay, perhaps a better indicator of typical salary levels in the City, was “only” £68,663, up by 8.2%.
Average full time pay in Tower Hamlets, home to London’s other major financial services hub in Docklands, was just below the six figure threshold at £99,376.
Across London as a whole average full time pay rose 7.1% to £70,275, while median pay was up 4.7% at £49,692. If part time workers are included average pay rose 7.4% to £60,673, and median pay was up 3.9% bat £43,190.
