Research and analysis

How much do refugees earn from employment?

Published 27 November 2025

Applies to England and Wales

The Home Office and Office for National Statistics have linked Home Office refugee data to the HMRC PAYE-RTI (Pay As You Earn Real Time Information) dataset. The PAYE-RTI dataset provides the annual earnings of each person in employment. Here we report the earnings of those who were granted refugee status in the period 2015 to 2023 by number of years since being granted refugee status .

Earnings have additionally been disaggregated by working hours. The working hours categories are as follows:

• part-time hours—less than 30 hours worked per week
• full-time hours—30 hours or more worked per week
• no regular pattern—no regular working hours each week (for example, seasonal work)

These statistics only refer to those who were in employment. If there was a PAYE-RTI entry for a year, we considered an individual to be in employment. If there was no PAYE-RTI entry for a year, we considered the individual to not be in employment for that year. Note that those considered unemployed may include those who are not able to work due to disability or long-term illness and would otherwise be considered economically inactive. PAYE-RTI can only tell us about employment. It cannot tell us about self-employment. If someone did not have a record in the PAYE-RTI dataset, we considered them not employed but that does not necessarily mean they were not working. Refer to ‘How many refugees are in employment?’ for employment rates.

The groups covered by the statistics shown here are:

• refugees who were granted asylum in the period 2015 to 2023
• refugees who were resettled into the UK under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) and Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme (VCRS)
• refugees who were resettled to the UK under the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS)
• refugees who were resettled to the UK under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) Pathway 2

These groups represent a subset of refugees in England and Wales and findings from this study should not be used to make inferences about the wider refugee population or those granted other forms of protection. Official statistics on asylum and resettled refugees are available in regularly published Home Office Asylum and resettlement datasets.

Further information and demographic breakdowns of the groups covered in these statistics are included in About this release.

1. How do refugee earnings change with increasing time in the UK?

Figure 1: Median annual earnings of employed people aged 16 to 64 years granted refugee status in the period 2015 to 2023 by number of years since being granted refugee status, England and Wales

Source: Home Office VPRS, VCRS, and asylum refugee data linked to HMRC PAYE-RTI data, the Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) Project

Notes:

1. n = 75,750 unique individuals who obtained employment in the period 2015 to 2023.

Median annual earnings among refugees aged 16 to 64 years who were granted refugee status in the UK between 2015 and 2023 gradually increased to £13,000, 8 years after being granted refugee status.

The median earnings for those who worked full-time hours (30 hours or more per week) increased to £23,000, 8 years after being granted refugee status.

The median earnings for those who worked part-time hours (less than 30 hours per week) reached £10,000 after 8 years.

The median earnings for those who worked no regular pattern of hours (including “zero-hours” contracts) increased to £11,000 after 8 years. This suggests that most irregular work is like part-time work in terms of hours worked per week.

For context, the median UK salary increased from £27,600 to £34,963 over the same period (from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2015 to 2023), while the minimum wage increased from £7.20 per hour which is £13,825 annually to £9.50 in 2023, which is £18,525 annually (assuming a 37.5 hour work week).

Figure 2: Annual earnings bands of employed people aged 16 to 64 years granted refugee status in the period 2015 to 2023 by number of years since being granted refugee status, England and Wales, 2015 to 2023

Source: Home Office VPRS, VCRS, and asylum refugee data linked to HMRC PAYE-RTI data, the Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) Project

Notes:

1. n = 75,750 unique individuals who obtained employment in the period 2015 to 2023.

Of refugees in employment, 77% had an annual employment income of less than £10,000 in the first year they were granted refugee status, with 17% having an annual employment income of £10,000 to £19,999 and only just over 6% earning £20,000 or more.

There was a decrease in the proportion of those earning less than £10,000 with increasing time in the UK and a corresponding increase in the proportions in other salary bands. However, even among those who were in employment 8 years after being granted refugee status, 36% were still earning less than £10,000 annually and 81% were earning less than £30,000 per year.

2. How do annual earnings change over time for different refugee cohorts?

Figure 3: Median annual earnings of employed people aged 16 to 64 years granted refugee status in the period 2015 to 2023 by number of years since being granted refugee status and arrival route, England and Wales

Source: Home Office VPRS, VCRS, and asylum refugee data linked to HMRC PAYE-RTI data, the Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) Project

Notes:

1. n = 72,615 unique asylum refugees and 3,140 unique resettled refugees who obtained employment in the period 2015 to 2023.
2. Resettled refugees include those resettled under the Vulnerable Persons and Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Schemes (VPRS and VCRS), UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) Pathway 2.

The median annual earnings for asylum refugees increased gradually to a median of £13,000 for those who were in employment after 8 years.

The median annual earnings for refugees who arrived via resettlement schemes increased to a median of £9,000 for those who were in employment 8 years later.

The median earnings for asylum refugees who worked full-time hours increased to £23,000, 8 years after being granted their status. The median earnings for asylum refugees who worked part-time or no regular pattern of hours reached £10,000 and £11,000 respectively 8 years later.

The median earnings for resettled refugees who worked full-time were not much higher than the median earnings of those working part-time or no regular hours even 8 years after arrival. This might suggest shorter spells of employment / periods where they are not able to work.

3. How do earnings for men and women change over time?

Figure 4: Median annual earnings of employed people aged 16 to 64 years granted refugee status in the period 2015 to 2023 by number of years since being granted refugee status, number of hours worked per week, and sex, England and Wales

Source: Home Office VPRS, VCRS, and asylum refugee data linked to HMRC PAYE-RTI data, the Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) Project

Notes:

1. n = 16,410 women and 59,345 men, unique individuals who obtained employment in the period 2015 to 2023.

The median annual earnings for both men and women increased to £13,000 for those who were in employment 8 years after obtaining refugee status.

Median earnings for men and women were similar across working patterns, reaching £23,000 after 8 years for full-time workers and around £10,000 for part-time workers and those working no regular pattern.

We know that employment rates for women were lower than for men over this period, therefore it is notable that there was not a big difference in earnings.

Figure 5: Median annual earnings of employed people aged 16 to 64 years granted refugee status in the period 2015 to 2023 by number of years since being granted refugee status, arrival route, and sex, England and Wales

Source: Home Office VPRS, VCRS, and asylum refugee data linked to HMRC PAYE-RTI data, the Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) Project

Notes:

1. n = 56,965 asylum refugee men, 15,650 asylum women, 2,380 resettled refugee men, 760 resettled refugee women, unique individuals who obtained employment in the period 2015 to 2023.

While average earnings for men and women who were granted asylum were quite similar over time, there was a bigger difference between men and women who were resettled to the UK.

The median salary for resettled men and women overall increased to £9,000 and £6,000 respectively 8 years after gaining refugee status.

4. How do earnings change over time by age group?

Figure 6: Median annual earnings of employed people aged 16 to 64 years granted refugee status in the period 2015 to 2023 by number of years since being granted refugee status and age category, England and Wales

Source: Home Office VPRS, VCRS, and asylum refugee data linked to HMRC PAYE-RTI data, the Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) Project

Median annual employment earnings increased across all age groups with increasing time in the UK.

Median annual employment earnings were at very similar levels for the 25 to 34 years, 35 to 44 years, 45 to 54 years, and 55 to 64 years age groups, rising to a median of £12,500 to £13,500 for those who were in employment 8 years later.

The 16 to 24 years age group had the lowest median annual employment earnings, increasing to £10,000 after 8 years.

5. How do earnings differ between nationalities?

Figure 7: Median annual earnings of employed people aged 16 to 64 years granted refugee status in the period 2015 to 2023 by number of years since being granted refugee status and nationality, England and Wales

Source: Home Office VPRS, VCRS, and asylum refugee data linked to HMRC PAYE-RTI data, the Refugee Integration Outcomes (RIO) Project

Notes:

1. Only the top 9 nationalities by count are represented here.
2. n = 5,890 Afghanistan, 1,320 Albania, 8,585 Eritrea, 13,710 Iran, 3,320 Iraq, 3,735 Pakistan, 3,130 Sri Lanka, 7,060 Sudan, 8,080 Syria, unique individuals who obtained employment in the period 2015 to 2023.
3. The line for “no regular pattern” in the Afghanistan chart is present but hidden behind the line for “all”.
4. The point at 8 years since refugee status for those from Albania working part-time was removed in accordance with statistical disclosure control rules.

There was an overall increase in average annual earnings for all nationalities with increased time in the UK.

However, the overall average annual earnings of refugees from Sri Lanka increased the most one year after being granted refugee status and remained high, reaching a median overall of £16,000 after 8 years.

Refugees from Pakistan and Eritrea also had higher earnings overall than those from other nationalities, but their median earnings increased more gradually over time to £15,000 and £17,000 respectively.

Median earnings for those working part-time hours or no regular pattern of hours generally plateaued around £10,000, while earnings for those who worked full-time reached at least £20,000 for most nationalities, except for those from Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan.