Our survey of more than 2700 health and safety practitioners provides a snapshot of the profession’s pay and conditions at the start of 2024, along with insight into qualification and motivation levels.
Our online survey, promoted on the IOSH magazine website, was open from 5 January to 15 February and 2725 OSH professionals responded – 17% more than the 2333 who replied to our last pay survey in 2022. Almost 97% are IOSH members.
They gave us details of their qualifications, membership levels, pay, wage increases and non-pay benefits, giving a clear picture of how the OSH profession is remunerated and highlighting differentials between membership grades and between male and female practitioners.
</ The survey sample >
Respondents are mostly UK-based (around 94%), with small numbers from the Republic of Ireland (2%) and New Zealand (0.5%) and a few each from a handful of countries including Australia, India and Saudi Arabia.
Just over 29% of the sample are aged 55 and above, up from 26.5% in our last survey in 2022. The proportion of respondents under 35 has fallen slightly since our last poll, from 16% to 14%. The change is not large in itself but suggests that more could be done to attract younger talent into the profession. The work by IOSH's Future Leaders community on motivating younger people toward OSH careers will hopefully mean broader results in the next salary survey.
The gender split in our survey is almost exactly the same as two years ago: 69.5% of OSH professionals identify as male and 29.8% as female. Only one practitioner identifies at non-binary, although 19 preferred not to answer the question. The proportion of females increases in the younger age groups, rising 10% to 39% among respondents aged 25 to 34.
We asked respondents to select from a list of typical job titles the one that corresponds most closely to their own – discounting extra duties such as environment or quality management. Two in five (40%) chose health and safety manager. The proportion of heads of department and OSH directors has risen marginally since our last pay survey and the number of assistants, apprentices and trainees at the lower end has fallen slightly.
The overwhelming majority are full-time employed (94%) with the rest split almost evenly between part-timers and the self-employed.
Almost three-quarters of practitioners work in the private sector, more than one in five in public services and only one in 20 (5.5%) in the charitable or third sector. Respondents could choose from a list of industrial sectors and the results (see Figure 3) show that construction and manufacturing are the biggest sectors.
As Figure 4 shows, more than 96% of OSH practitioners in our poll are IOSH members, the bulk of them in the Technical, Chartered and the recently introduced Certified grades. Asked which other professional bodies they are members of besides IOSH, participants’ most common response (42.5% of respondents) is the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), reflecting the frequency with which OSH and environmental management responsibilities are conjoined by employers.
The spread of qualifications held by OSH professionals has changed little since our last survey, with only a 1% or 2% change for each qualification. The proportion of respondents with bachelor’s degrees has risen by just over a percentage point to 17.7%.
Only around one in five of the 447 respondents who hold a NEBOSH construction certificate work in the construction sector, probably reflecting the mobility of practitioners who start in the building industry into other sectors, but also perhaps the need to understand OSH in construction for those managing sites in other sectors. A facility to note other qualifications than those listed in Figure 5 revealed that 71 (around 2.5%) hold Level 4 or 5 National or Scottish Vocational Qualifications (NVQs or SVQs) in OSH.
Half the respondents (49.2%) say they are not allocated any discretionary professional budget to spend each year – up from 45% in our previous survey. Among those allocated budgets, the median figure falls in the range £20,001 to £50,000. At the top end, almost one in 20 budget holders are each responsible for spending £500,000 or more a year, presumably making them responsible for training procurement and/or personal protective equipment.
Construction is commonly the single largest sector represented in surveys of OSH practitioners, and our poll is no exception: the building industry accounts for more than a fifth (21.2%) of the survey participants. Manufacturing, transportation and the education sector are the other largest sectors.
Few respondents reported long tenure in their current jobs. Only 17% have more than 10 years in post, while just over 60% have five years or fewer.
</ Pay rates >
The average pay levels we quote are median averages, the midpoint in the range of all pay rates.
The survey allowed participants to state their annual pay to the nearest thousand pounds – converted, if they are paid in another currency – from £15,000 to £80,000. Above £80,000 we offered bigger steps of £10,000, up to £100,000 and then of £25,000 up to £150,000. Two dozen respondents reported earning above £150,000, a third fewer than in our 2022 poll. At the lower end, 29 said they are paid under £15,000. At the lower end, the outliers almost matched the whole sample for age and gender, but at the upper end, those paid more than £150,000 were all male.
The average salary for all full-time employed practitioners is £50,000, and half of all full-time respondents earn between £42,000 and £66,000. The average earnings for self-employed respondents are higher at £65,000; this figure comes with the caution that there was only a small sub-sample of freelance practitioners (69 or 2.5% of all respondents) who participated in the survey.
just over 60% of respondents have five years or fewer in their current role
Our £50,000 median for full-time employed practitioners is around 16% higher than the comparable figure of £43,000 we recorded in 2022. The respondents to the two surveys are not a matched set so some of the variation may be down to differences in the composition of the samples, but as our data on pay awards shows, the jump also reflects increases in salary levels for some OSH professionals to compensate for high levels of price inflation. In the UK, inflation – as measured by the Retail Prices Index – was running at more than 10% for 15 months of the 24 months between the two polls, peaking at 14.2% in October 2022.
Nicole Rinaldi, IOSH director of professional services, says of the survey findings: ‘While we recognise not all respondents are the same as those who completed the previous survey, it’s encouraging to see median salaries increasing, particularly during such a challenging financial time. OSH professionals provide significant value to businesses in so many ways and we are keen to see that this is recognised.’
</ Managers’ salaries >
The most common job held by respondents is safety and health manager. The £50,000 median for all managers shown in Figure 6 is the same for those in the public sector, but managers’ salaries in the private sector are higher at £58,000. Half the managers earn between £43,000 and £60,000. Managers in construction earn £58,000 a year; those in manufacturing earn £50,000, while in transport and logistics the average fell to £48,000.
</ Pay by membership grade >
The figures suggest that it pays to be an IOSH member. The median salary for full-time non-member respondents (albeit based on a relatively small sample of 89 people), is £40,000, a fifth below the median for the whole survey and almost a third lower than the median for Chartered Members working full time. ‘It’s of interest that the mean salary of IOSH members was higher than that of non-members,’ says Nicole, ‘though the sample size of the latter group was relatively small. This demonstrates that being an IOSH member can have a positive effect on how you are paid as an OSH professional.’
In the Chartered grade, which is directly comparable with our previous survey, the median salary is £59,000, 11% higher than the £53,000 in 2022, though the two samples were not a matched group of practitioners. Those in the new Certified grade earn an average £50,000 in line with the median for the whole sample; in 2022 the figure for the old equivalent GradIOSH membership was £44,000, 13% lower.
Around one in 10 (10.8%) said safety practitioners at their workplaces are incentivised by their employer to gain Chartered Member status, most commonly with a pay rise, although one respondent explained that the reward for gaining chartered status is non-financial: ‘[It is the] self-fulfilment of achieving best of the best in the profession.’
In answer to whether their pay has risen since becoming Chartered Members, 296 said that their earnings have increased, around one in three of those in our sample with Chartered status.
</ The gender pay gap >
In our previous two polls, the gap between male and female OSH practitioners’ average pay was £2000; in our current poll it is substantially wider at £5000. The median pay for all full-time female practitioners is £45,000 compared with £50,000 for males. This 10% disparity holds true when we exclude the minority of non-UK respondents from the analysis and is higher than the UK government’s gender pay gap figure for all-occupations of 7.7% for full-time workers in 2023. There is nothing in the make-up of the male and female groups in our current poll (seniority, age or sector) that offers an easy explanation for the higher differential.
at 10%, the gender pay gap among respondents is higher than the UK average
Since the sample of OSH practitioners giving us their pay data is not the same as in previous surveys, we cannot say confidently that female practitioners’ wages have risen more slowly than their male counterparts. The gap does narrow to £3000 or 6% when the comparison is restricted to just those with the safety and health manager title.
‘The survey results have flagged some areas where we are determined to see continued improvements,’ says Nicole. ‘The gender pay gap is one, and the reduction in respondents under the age of 35 indicates that we need to do more to attract younger people into the profession. We will be reviewing this and considering the best ways to respond.’
</ Pay rises >
High inflation in the past two years is clearly reflected in responses to a question about respondents’ pay increases in the 12 months before the survey (see Figure 8). The median increase for all employed respondents was 3%, but around a third of respondents (32.5%) received rises of 5% or more. In our 2022 survey, when inflation rates had only recently risen above 4% for the second time in almost 10 years, only 8.6% of respondents reported pay increases at this level. Despite these higher levels for some practitioners, the most commonly reported award was no increase at all; almost three in 10 people in our poll had their pay frozen in the previous 12 months.
‘My salary grew by 2% or 3% from 2017-21,’ wrote one safety and health manager in manufacturing.’“I feel this was meagre considering the company was doing well.’
‘I feel my salary is now just below what I feel I am worth based on my professional standing, qualifications, experience and my current role,’ added another manager for a UK charity who earns £44,000 a year. ‘However, this is only due to a significant cost- of-living salary increase in 2023 and a more significant increase as a result of informing my employer I was attending an interview for a position outside of the company. Had it not been for these two increases, my salary would now be approximately 15% less and significantly below my expectation.’
Most practitioners (82%) said their work performance was assessed annually, most commonly against objectives, key performance indicator targets or on a mixture of personal and business performance. Around 24% said they were judged on annual accident rates and a similar number on overall business performance. Only 18% said their pay was tied to these metrics.
Almost half our sample (45%) received bonuses on top of their salaries last year. Bonuses averaged 5% across the whole sample, although one in 20 of those who were awarded additional payments (4.8%) said they boosted their pay by more than 10%.
</ Employee benefits >
Figure 10 shows the non-salary benefits our employed survey participants receive. As in previous polls, the small majority who have access to a company pension scheme most commonly report that they are offered money purchase arrangements in which the money they receive in retirement will be dictated by variations in the financial markets in the years before. Final salary arrangements which pay a predictable income based on years worked with an organisation, have become rarer, and are only accessible to one in five, mostly older respondents.
Around one in six of the private-sector respondents have access to shares in their company on tax-friendly terms. A few respondents mentioned private medical insurance. Around one in 10 employed participants in our poll (9.8%) said they have no entitlement to any of the benefits listed.
We also asked whether respondents have the option of hybrid working or flexible hours arrangements in their current work; 62% say they do. We do not have any comparison from before the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21, but it is likely that the percentage would have been far lower before the enforced period of home working showed employers and employees the potential for flexible working in many jobs. As Figure 9 illustrates, more than two-fifths of practitioners rated flexibility as one of their top three elements in their job.
</ Motivation >
Figure 9 shows the answers to a question about what factors respondents most valued in their current work positions. Respondents could choose three motivating factors. The most common element cited was salary, ticked by almost two-thirds, followed some way behind by a cluster of flexible working arrangements and management style and culture. A safety and health officer, aged between 55 and 64 working in local government, noted that salaries in his sector were ‘not the best’, but ‘work/life balance, pension, flexible working and a more relaxed, supportive culture are superior and add to the quality of life – after working 30 years in the private sector’.
Studies published by management consultants have noted how important it is to employees to work for organisations with a purpose beyond just generating profit. That is not the case with our respondents. Organisational purpose was the least frequently rated motivational element – chosen by fewer than one in five (18%), evenly spread across the age groups. We are unsure whether our sample is unswayed by the idea of corporate purpose or whether they do not believe their organisations have an expressed aim other than a healthy bottom line.
‘I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to complete this survey,’ says Nicole. ‘I recognise it takes time out of your day but the results are very important to us as we continue to explore new ways of supporting and building the profession.’
