Salary Intelligence
Warehouse Operative
A worker responsible for receiving, storing, picking, packing and dispatching goods in a warehouse or distribution centre.
An Office for National Statistics estimate. This figure is the ONS's own published estimate, reused under the Open Government Licence, not a figure WageOra has worked out itself. See Salaries for how WageOra checks and uses figures like this one.
Median gross annual earnings
£27,832.00 per year — median gross annual earnings for full-time employee jobs, United Kingdom.
Provenance
| Source | Office for National Statistics — Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), 2025 (provisional, corrected 19 December 2025) |
|---|---|
| Table | ASHE Table 14 |
| Occupation code (SOC 2020) | 9252 — Warehouse operatives |
| Geography | United Kingdom |
| Reference period | Tax year ending 5 April 2025 |
| Licence | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
What a warehouse operative does
Warehouse operatives move stock through a site. That means taking deliveries in, picking and packing orders, loading vehicles out and keeping the records straight. What the job feels like depends heavily on where you do it. A small distribution unit and a large automated fulfilment centre both employ warehouse operatives, but the pace, the equipment and the shift pattern are very different.
Most of the work is learned on the job. Where a qualification does matter it's usually a practical one, and a licence for a forklift or reach truck is the common example.
What the ONS figure covers
This is a figure for full time employee jobs. Warehouse work carries a lot of part time and seasonal staff, especially through the busiest trading months, and none of those jobs sit behind this number. If you work part time or on a short seasonal contract, read it as describing a different group of people rather than an average you ought to match.
What can affect a warehouse operative's pay?
When you work can matter as much as what you do. The survey counts shift premium pay separately, which ONS describes as the extra paid for working a non-regular shift such as a night or a weekend. In practice that premium, along with overtime through busy periods, is what separates two people on the same basic rate.
Beyond hours: whether you're licensed for powered equipment, whether you take on team leader or stock control duties, the sector the site serves, and how tight the local labour market is.
What this could mean for take-home pay
Using the 2026/27 tax year and the median above as a gross salary (England, Wales & Northern Ireland, no pension or student loan), our calculator works out a take-home pay of £23,558.64 per year (£1,963.22 per month). This is a worked example, not a claim about what you'd actually take home — try your own numbers on the Salary Calculator.