The Datum Report

Occupation 1133 · Managers, directors and senior officials

Public relations and communications directors

Half of full-time public relations and communications directors in the UK earn more than £72,887 a year, and half earn less.

Public relations and communications directors plan, organise, direct and co-ordinate the public relations, communications and public information activities of an organisation or on behalf of clients.

How people enter it

Entry is generally via career progression from related occupations (e.g. communications officer, public relations officer) and although there are no pre-set entry standards, in practice most communications and public relations directors hold a degree. Off and on-the-job training is provided.

What the work involves

• develops and reviews the public relations policy and direction of an organisation
• directs and oversees the work of the communications department of an organisation or work on behalf of clients at a public relations firm
• liaises with client to discuss their needs and develops the most appropriate strategy to deliver the objectives directs public relations campaigns and communicates messages through a variety of media
• reviews and revises campaign strategy and takes appropriate corrective measures if necessary
• stays abreast of changes in media, readership or viewing figures
• directs the arranging of conferences, exhibitions, seminars, etc. to promote the image of a product, service or organisation

Also called

Head of communications · Head of public relations

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for public relations and communications directors, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 2 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Charitable organisation managers and directors · Financial managers and directors · Functional managers and directors n.e.c. · Human resource managers and directors · Information technology directors · Marketing, sales and advertising directors · Purchasing managers and directors