Average annual income of UK plumbers is not between £150,000 and £1 million

A video on Facebook falsely claims that the “average income” of a plumber is between £150,000 and £1 million per year. But the available evidence suggests that this is not true. 

The claim appears in a Facebook video about jobs that ”pay you” over £100,000 per year without a degree. The video has over 1,500 likes.

One claim made about plumbers in the video is that: “their average income is between £150,000 and £1 million per year.”

The government’s National Careers Service says the average income for a plumber in the UK starts at £15,000 and can go up to £40,000 with experience, which is considerably lower than the claim in the video. The government website says its salary data comes from the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, industry bodies, live vacancies and public sector pay scales.

However, a spokesperson for the Department for Education told Full Fact that this data does not include the income of self-employed plumbers or take overtime rates into account. 

They also said the data “provides averages on a job group basis, as opposed to individual roles. So a job group including plumbers would also likely include other occupations such as heating and ventilation engineers. These job groups are standard occupation codes and are used to classify information relating to jobs.”

It has been reported that self-employed plumbers earned an average of £1,068 per week in 2022, which is approximately £55,536 over the year. Another estimate suggests self-employed tradespeople—such as plumbers—could earn up to £60,000.  

There have been reports of plumbers for some companies earning considerably more than this. As well as experience level, a plumber’s income could depend on the type of plumbing work they can do and where they’re based. 

While the average income for a plumber, when including self-employed plumbers, is likely to be higher than the National Careers Service figures, there’s no evidence to support the claim it is between £150,000 and £1 million a year.

The man in the video also includes electricians as one of the jobs that can earn more than £100,000 without a degree. He does not refer to the average income of an electrician but instead to the possible earnings. 

He says: “Whilst a lot of people are going off to university not a lot of people are becoming electricians, and because there’s not a lot of electricians they can charge high prices, meaning they can make between £150,000 and £200,000 per year.”

The average salary for an electrician is between £18,000 and £42,000 according to government figures. But it has also been reported that self-employed electricians or business-owners could be earning around £56,800 per year while other reports feature  electricians earning considerably more than this. 

Full Fact has contacted the Facebook page that posted the video for a comment and will update the article if we receive a response. 

We have written before about other false and misleading claims relating to salaries, including how much firefighters, paramedics and police officers earn, as well as junior doctor’s pay. False claims may result in people making decisions or having opinions and impressions about a job based on inaccurate information. 

Image courtesy of freepic.com