Pay has grown at a faster rate for HR directors over the past year when compared with most other roles in HR, according to a new study.
Most HR directors have experienced a significant salary uptick, found Incomes Data Research, with their median salary rising by 20.9% from £111,982 in 2024 to £135,381 in 2025.
IDR’s research also found that pay for HR function heads has risen by 8.7%, with the median salary rising from £73,246 last year to £79,600 in 2025. By contrast the latest median pay rise for the whole economy, as observed by IDR, is 3.2%.
Pay growth for less senior roles is much lower. Analysis of pay for HR advisers reveals a modest increase in the median salary of 1.5% (from £40,303 in 2024 to £40,902 in 2025). Meanwhile, pay for HR assistants has stayed broadly the same with the median at £25,000.
The significant increase in pay for HR directors has widened further the gap between pay for these most senior roles and that for roles on the next level down, typically HR function heads. In 2024, the gap between the median salaries for these roles was £38,736. But the latest figures show that this has broadened by 44% to £55,781.
Participants in the survey were also asked to indicate the state of recruitment and retention for HR roles.
“Where recruitment difficulties do exist, they are largely linked to senior roles with some 17% of respondents describing recruitment of HR directors as ‘very difficult’,” said Alyssa Withers, researcher at IDR.
However, retention of such roles is less of a problem, with nearly all (94%) of the survey sample indicating that retention of HR directors was “not a problem”.
