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Typical UK worker 'would need 52 years of pay' to join richest 10%
The Guardian
|October 08, 2025
Someone with average earnings in the UK would have to save their entire income for 52 years to become wealthy enough to be in the richest 10%, according to new research by the Resolution Foundation.
The influential thinktank analysed the Office for National Statistics wealth and assets survey for the Covid pandemic period of 2020-22, the latest available.
The authors found that in 2006-08, before the global financial crisis, it would have taken 38 years' worth of median full-time earnings for a worker to match someone in the top 10%. By 2020-22 that gap had widened to 52 years.
This story is from the October 08, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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