UK pay benchmarks, from live job adverts
The median advertised salary across 5,598 live specialist roles is £55,000 a year. That is roughly double the UK median for all employees, and deliberately so: this board carries construction, healthcare, energy and life sciences only, and nothing advertised below £28,000.
The spread
Every priced listing on the board, lowest to highest.
Lowest £21,320Highest £82,875,000
- Lower quartile
- £41,000
- a quarter pay less
- Median
- £55,000
- the typical advert
- Upper quartile
- £75,000
- a quarter pay more
Median advertised pay by sector
Highest paying cities
Cities with at least five priced listings — below that, one unusual advert moves the median by thousands.
Canterbury£118,811median · 35 listingsInverness£99,999median · 6 listingsStirling£89,800median · 5 listingsLondon£67,500median · 849 listingsGlasgow£65,000median · 55 listingsWatford£63,409median · 49 listingsManchester£63,375median · 177 listingsSwansea£62,051median · 39 listingsBlackburn£61,328median · 13 listingsMilton Keynes£61,139median · 82 listingsHuddersfield£61,139median · 25 listingsBristol£60,000median · 155 listings
Highest paying job titles
Consultant602 priced · 602 live£132,067Quantity Surveyor200 priced · 200 live£82,500Site Manager204 priced · 204 live£72,500Project Manager132 priced · 132 live£72,500Development Manager188 priced · 188 live£70,000Estimator143 priced · 143 live£70,000Building Surveyor152 priced · 152 live£70,000Civil Engineer167 priced · 167 live£69,973Building Services Engineer177 priced · 177 live£65,000HV Engineer119 priced · 119 live£65,000
Questions about these benchmarks
- What is the average advertised salary on BOQQS?
- The median advertised salary is £55,000 a year across 5,598 live listings. The middle half of adverts sit between £41,000 and £75,000.
- Why is this higher than the UK average salary?
- Because it is not measuring the same thing. This board carries construction, healthcare, energy and life sciences roles only, and it does not carry anything advertised below £28,000. National figures such as the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings cover every job in every industry, including part-time and entry-level work, so their median is far lower. Use these benchmarks for specialist roles, and the ONS for the country as a whole.
- Is this what people are paid, or what is advertised?
- Advertised. Every figure comes from the salary written into a live job advert. Advertised pay tends to run ahead of what people in post are actually earning, because employers advertise to attract candidates, and because pay rises lag the market.
- Which sector advertises the highest pay?
- Construction, at a median of £67,500 from 1739 priced listings.
- How often are these figures updated?
- Continuously. The board refreshes from its feeds daily and these pages recalculate with it — the newest listing in this sample was posted 16 Oct 2026.