The Datum Report

Occupation 4216 · Administrative and secretarial occupations

Receptionists

Half of full-time receptionists in the UK earn more than £24,678 a year, and half earn less.

Receptionists receive and direct telephone calls and visitors to commercial, government and other establishments.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements, although many employers expect entrants to possess GCSEs/S grades. There are a variety of relevant vocational qualifications available. NVQs/SVQs in Administration are available at level 2 that encompass various aspects of reception work. Professional qualifications are also available.

What the work involves

• receives callers and clients and directs them to the appropriate person or department
• records the details of enquiries and makes appointments and reservations
• answers, screens and forwards or otherwise deals with telephone enquiries
• supplies brochures, pamphlets and other information for clients
• records details of visitors, issues security passes and informs visitors of any actions to be taken in case of an emergency
• maintains reception area in good order

Also called

Dental receptionist · Doctor’s receptionist · Medical receptionist · Reception manager · Receptionist · Receptionist-administrator

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for receptionists, 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. 11 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

Company secretaries and administrators · Legal secretaries · Medical secretaries · Personal assistants and other secretaries · School secretaries · Typists and related keyboard occupations