WORKERS across Scotland are the best paid outside London and the south east of England, the latest figures show.
Scots’ annual gross pay was put at £27,710 which was bettered only by London at £36,749 and the south east at £29,058.
The figures come from analysis by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICE) which is based on Office for National Statistics data issued last April.
According to the statistics, the median hourly pay of Scots, excluding overtime, sits at £15 while in the south east it is £15.37. London is out in front at £19.43.
The research also showed the highest-earning residents lived in East Renfrewshire, with a median hourly pay without overtime of £24.91.
This figure is 36% higher than the Scottish average of £18.30 and 10% more than the £22.64 of second-placed East Dunbartonshire.
Researchers highlighted that the best-performing areas tended to have a high number of commuters with those in East Renfrewshire paying 61% more than the £15.43 of Dumfries and Galloway – the second-lowest-earning area.
Figures also showed that Edinburgh narrowly topped Glasgow in terms of median pay – sitting at £16.43 compared to £16.40.
At the bottom of the table in Scotland was South Ayrshire, with an average median pay of £12.47.
This was just below Dumfries and Galloway at £12.50.
When looking at full-time workers only, Scotland was again in third place with £33,332, behind London at £41,866 and the south east at £34,431.
Real-term growth in Scottish full-time salaries was put at 0.9% between 2018 and 2022. Wales was the best performer by this measure with an increase of 2.9%.
For part-time workers, Scotland was at the top of the table with an average salary of £12,882 compared with £12,627 for London.
It is understood that part-time salaries have risen by 7% in Scotland between 2018 and 2022.
However, the gender pay gap was still at 12.2% although it was down to 3.7% when taking full-time workers into account.
Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said: “It is welcome to see Scotland being an attractive, competitive and leading location for well-paid jobs in the UK.”
The report also showed that public sector workers earned an average of £17.71 an hour compared with £13.44 for the private sector and £14.52 in non-profit bodies.
