Main points
Annual Summary
In the 12 months to December 2025:
- median earnings increased by an average of 4.6% in nominal terms compared with the previous 12 months
- median earnings increased by an average of 2.0% in real terms compared with the previous 12 months
- the sum of median earnings on a full-time equivalency basis was £44,210
- the sum of mean earnings on a full-time equivalency basis was £60,820
- March saw the highest level of earnings inequality, driven by a large single month increase in earnings for the financial and legal activities sector, likely as a result of bonuses
- the number of dependently employed jobs were highest in July, at 58,920
Monthly Summary
In December 2025:
- overall median earnings for the month were £3,900
- the approximate median hourly rate paid was £23.07
- the median earnings index (see methodology document) saw a nominal annual increase of 6.1% from December 2024, which was a 3.2% increase in real terms (adjusting for inflation)
- median earnings were highest in the 50 to 54 age group (£4,780)
- the highest median earnings were in the financial and legal activities sector (£5,480)
- the lowest median earnings were in the hotels, restaurants and bars sector (£2,710)
- median earnings for jobs where the employee had a long-term illness or disability were £3,260; around £660 less than those who did not have a long-term illness or disability
- mean earnings were £5,490
- there were 56,990 dependently employed jobs;
- a higher number were worked by males (28,770) than females (28,220)
- a 2.8% increase from December 2024 (1,550 additional jobs)
- the financial and legal activities sector was the largest sector, with 13,900 jobs
- the manufacturing sector was the smallest sector, with 650 jobs
- the most frequent contracted hours in the financial and legal activities sector was 35 per week, the lowest of all sectors, despite this sector seeing the highest earnings
Things you need to know
This report presents estimates of gross employment earnings in Jersey for those dependently employed. Full-time equivalency adjustments and pay period adjustments for weekly paid staff are made during the analysis to make jobs more comparable within and between sectors.
These statistics were produced using data already held by Government for administrative purposes, specifically:
They provide a greater level of detail and additional information than is currently available in our existing survey based earnings statistics.
The report presents both median and mean earnings levels on a full-time equivalent (FTE) employee basis. People with more than one dependently employed job will appear multiple times as all jobs which are dependently employed are included in this analysis. Medians are the main measure of earnings throughout the report. Employment and demographic information are linked by combining administrative data sources. This enables breakdowns by:
- industrial sector
- age
- sex
- self-declared nationality
- claimants of Long Term Incapacity Allowance and Short Term Incapacity Allowance whilst employed
All jobs are adjusted to a full-time basis, meaning that the earnings analysed are adjusted for what that individual would have earnt for that job if they worked full-time for the full month. This is done by adjusting the earnings of a job based on the ratio of its contracted hours to the most frequent contracted hours in that sector. As such, changes in overall earnings should be measured using the median earnings index, as this accounts for variation in the most frequent hours worked in a sector. A detailed description of the methodology can be found in the methodology document.
It should be noted that administrative changes were made to the processing of contributions data by the Government of Jersey from July 2024 onwards. These changes resulted in some dependent second jobs held by individuals who are also self-employed no longer appearing in the contributions data. Where possible these jobs are identified from ITIS and reintroduced into the dataset. Despite this, dependently employed jobs were reduced by around 0.4% and median earnings were reduced by 0.9% due to this administrative change. This is adjusted for throughout the report, so all values presented are on the current basis.
In this report, earnings refers to employment earnings. For statistics on household income, including earned and unearned income, see our household income distribution report.
Overall earnings
Amounts in this section are nominal, that is, the amount received by individuals at the time. Real-term comparisons (adjusted for inflation) are described later in this report.
In the 12 months to December 2025 median earnings increased by an average of 4.6% in nominal terms compared with the previous 12 months.
In December 2025 earnings were around £3,900 per month, or £23.07 per hour. Some months each year see large increases in earnings, in particular March and December. This is primarily due to the financial and legal activities sector and is likely as a result of bonuses in the sector.
Earnings by sector
Using the Standard Industrial Classification 2007 (SIC 2007) the median earnings of an employee, on an FTE basis, can be calculated by the sector of employment. Note that this is the sector of their employer, which may differ from the sector of the individual’s occupation.
The public sector consists of all Government of Jersey employees, including teachers and nurses. Some other organisations such as Jersey’s 12 parishes are also in the public sector. The education, health and other services sector includes teachers and healthcare employees who work in the private sector but does not include any public sector jobs.
In the 12 months to December 2025 median earnings increased by an average of 4.6% in nominal terms, from £3,520 to £3,680, compared with the previous 12 months. However this was not equal across all sectors of employment.
In April 2025 the minimum wage increased by 11.7%, from £11.64 to £13.00. This particularly influenced the increases seen in the agriculture and fishing, and hotels, restaurants and bars sectors.
Detailed results for individual sectors are available on opendata.
Earnings by age
The median level of earnings can also be analysed by the age of the employee.
The lowest median earnings are seen in the 16 to 19 age group. However, it should be noted that the majority of individuals in this age group will still be in full-time education. Median earnings then increase until reaching the highest level at the 50 to 54 age group (£4,780), after which they decrease with age.
Earnings by nationality
Using self-reported nationality from administrative data, it is possible to calculate median earnings by the nationality of the employee. To ensure estimates are robust, results are presented only for nationalities with more than 100 individuals.
When analysing by nationality the highest median earnings were seen for South African employees (£5,410), while the lowest median earnings were seen for Thai employees (£2,820).
Over half of South African employees (52%) worked in the highest paid sector, finance and legal activities. Whereas around two thirds (67%) of Thai employees worked in two lower paying sectors; education, health and other services or hotels, restaurants and bars.
Earnings by illness or disability
Earnings can also be broken down by whether the employee was claiming Short Term Incapacity Allowance (STIA) or Long Term Incapacity Allowance (LTIA). These benefits are claimed when someone has an illness or disability, with STIA for a maximum of up to one year and LTIA being where an illness or disability has been ongoing for at least six months.
STIA payments are based upon the number of days someone is unable to work due to illness or injury.
LTIA is claimed as a proportion of a maximum LTIA rate, with the proportion dependent on the individuals illness or disability.
In December 2025, those claiming STIA and in employment:
- had median earnings of around £3,340
- earnt £590 less than the median earnings of those who did not claim STIA (£3,940)
- claimed STIA for an average of 16 days
- received an average of £680 in STIA payments in addition to their earnings
In December 2025, those claiming LTIA and in employment:
- had median earnings of around £3,260
- earnt £660 less than the median earnings of those who did not claim LTIA (£3,920)
- claimed for an average of 47% of the maximum LTIA rate
- received an average of £560 in LTIA payments in addition to their earnings
Real-term earnings
Nominal earnings discussed earlier in this report can be adjusted using the Retail Prices Index (RPI) to provide real-term values. As the RPI is only produced quarterly, the index has to be interpolated between points. Quarterly changes in the RPI are split evenly across the three months of the quarter.
All values in this real-term earnings section are in December 2025 prices.
It should be noted that December often sees a single month increase in earnings, likely due to bonuses within certain sectors. So real term levels are higher each December, when compared with the previous and next month.
In the 12 months to December 2025, median earnings increased by an average of 2.0% in real terms compared with the previous 12 months.
In December 2025, real-terms median earnings were £3,900, a 3.2% increase in real terms compared with December 2024.
These real-term earnings values can also be examined by employment sector.
On average in the period January 2025 to December 2025, 11 of the 12 sectors saw real-term increases in earnings. The largest real terms increase was seen for the agriculture and fishing sector (5.6%). The largest real terms decrease was seen for the transport and storage sector (-2.1%).
The difference between earnings of males and females can also be examined on a real-terms basis.
We produce an annual Gender Pay Gap Report which goes into more detail and breakdowns on pay differences between males and females.
Gini coefficient
Measures of average earnings provide an indication of the typical level of earnings but do not show how earnings are distributed between jobs. To provide additional insight into the spread of earnings recorded in this dataset, a Gini coefficient has been calculated.
The Gini coefficient is a widely used measure of the distribution of income or earnings. In this report, it is used specifically to measure how employment earnings are distributed between different jobs. This is not a measure of household income inequality, nor does it measure overall inequality within Jersey. The results reflect only the distribution of employment earnings captured by this dataset.
The Gini coefficient summarises differences in earnings across jobs as a single value between 0 and 1:
- a value of 0 indicates that all jobs have the same earnings
- a value of 1 indicates that earnings are received by a single job
Each March saw the highest level of earnings inequality. This month annually sees a significant, usually single month, increase in the financial and legal activities sector, suggesting that bonuses have impacted both the sectors’ earnings and the overall level of earnings inequality in Jersey.
Over the last three years, the 12-month rolling average Gini coefficient has decreased by 0.014, from 0.373 for 2022 to 0.359 for 2025. This indicates that earnings inequality has slightly lessened over this time period.
Dependently employed jobs
The number of jobs are important to consider when looking at earnings. Sectors vary in the number of jobs between each other and over time. Certain sectors also see large differences in the number of employed males and females.
Seasonal peaks in the number of jobs are seen in these sectors:
- hotels, restaurants and bars
- education, health and other services
- agriculture and fishing
- wholesale and retail
The hotels, restaurants and bars sector has the largest impact on the overall seasonality in jobs seen in Jersey.
Each year sees the highest level of jobs in July. It should be noted that this is only dependently employed jobs; job changes do not account for individuals moving between self-employment and dependent employment. Such changes are accounted for in our Employment statistics report.
The level of employment, both overall and by sex, varies between sectors. For example, the construction and quarrying sector is predominately male, whereas the education, health and other services sector is predominately female.
Comparison with the UK
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) also produce median earnings statistics using a similar administrative data methodology. This means that we can directly compare annual average percentage changes in the UK and in Jersey, both overall and by sector.
All sector earnings increased by less in Jersey (4.6%), compared with the UK (5.5%), in the period January 2025 to December 2025.
7 out of 12 sectors saw nominal earnings increase by more in Jersey than in the UK over the same period.
Both Jersey and the UK saw increases to the minimum wage in April 2025. In Jersey the increase was 11.7%, whereas in the UK it was 6.7%. In Jersey this particularly influenced the increases seen in the agriculture and fishing, and hotels, restaurants and bars sectors.
Data sources and methods
Data tables and supplementary information associated with this release can be found on our open data site: Earnings in Jersey – Datasets – Open Data.
Full details of the methodology used in this administrative data approach can be found in the Earnings in Jersey Methodology report.