Significant uptick in median salaries for senior HR roles from 2024 to 2025

Pay has again grown at a faster rate for HR directors over the last year when compared to most other roles in HR, according to our latest study of pay for these roles. Most HR directors have experienced a significant salary uptick, with the median salary rising by 20.9% from £111,982 in 2024 to £135,381 in 2025. Our 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 advisors 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 and is showing at £25,000 at the median.

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.

Recruitment and retention

Participants were also asked to indicate the state of recruitment and retention for their HR roles. In general, employers are not currently experiencing significant recruitment or retention challenges in this area. 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’. However, retention of such roles is less of a problem with nearly all (94%) of our sample indicating that retention of HR directors is ‘not a problem’. The difficulties in recruitment may be partly why HR Directors’ pay has seen such a jump over the past year, as recruiters may have had to increase pay to make the role more attractive to prospective employees. However there may be other contributing factors at play. Meanwhile, nine out of ten respondents said that retention was ‘not a problem’ for HR function head roles. Overall, the findings highlight a trend of strong salary growth at the highest levels of the function, while pay for more junior roles has seen little change over the past year.

The survey was conducted between January and February 2025 and received responses from 47 organisations across the economy.