The Datum Report

Occupation 5314 · Skilled trades occupations

Roofers, roof tilers and slaters

Half of full-time roofers, roof tilers and slaters in the UK earn more than £31,906 a year, and half earn less.

Roofers, roof tilers and slaters cover roofs and exterior walls with felting, sheeting, slates, tiles and thatch to provide a waterproof surface.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements, though GCSEs/S grades are advantageous. Entry is typically through an approved apprenticeship programme or college course in conjunction with on-the-job training, leading to a NVQ/SVQ level 2/3 qualification, or through building up work experience supplemented with short courses.

What the work involves

• measures roof or exterior wall and calculates required amounts of underfelt, tiles, slates or thatching material
• cuts wooden battens, felt and underfelt to required size
• lays and secures underfelt and covers with hot bitumen or other adhesive compound
• lays, aligns and secures successive overlapping layers of roofing material
• seals edges of roof with mortar and ensures that joints are watertight

Also called

Mastic asphalt spreader · Roof tiler · Roofer · Roofing contractor · Slater · Thatcher

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for roofers, roof tilers and slaters, full-time employees, 2024 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

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 6 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

Bricklayers · Carpenters and joiners · Construction and building trades n.e.c. · Glaziers, window fabricators and fitters · Plumbers and heating and ventilating installers and repairers · Steel erectors · Stonemasons and related trades