The Datum Report

Occupation 3531 · Associate professional occupations

Brokers

Half of full-time brokers in the UK earn more than £56,689 a year, and half earn less.

Brokers deal in commodities, stocks, shares and foreign exchange on behalf of clients or on own account, broker insurance and reinsurance, and buy and sell shipping and freight space.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic requirements although many employers require entrants to possess a degree or equivalent qualification. Training is typically undertaken in-house, although entrants may attend courses run by professional institutions. Registration with a regulatory authority may be required in some positions.

What the work involves

• advises client on the suitability of insurance schemes and places insurance on behalf of client
• discusses buying and or selling requirements of client and gives advice accordingly
• analyses information concerning market trends for commodities, financial assets and foreign exchange and advises client and employer on the suitability of investments
• records and transmits buy and sell orders for stocks, shares and bonds and calculates transaction costs
• provides independent advice on the suitability of insurance schemes and places insurance on behalf of client
• arranges the production of auction catalogues, fixes reserve prices, attends auction and bids on behalf of client, or negotiates purchase/sale by private treaty of goods not sold at auction
• obtains cargo space, fixes freight charges and signs and issues bills of loading
• collects freight charges from client and undertakes all necessary formalities concerning customs and the loading/unloading of cargo

Also called

Foreign exchange dealer · Insurance broker · Investment administrator · Stockbroker · Trader (stock exchange)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for brokers, 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. 1 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

Financial accounts managers · Financial and accounting technicians · Insurance underwriters