What are office managers worth?

The range of pay varies primarily according to location, experience level, and scope of the job. In London, an office manager will normally be paid between £22,000 and £37,000 per year, although larger companies can pay significantly more than this.

Outside London, as with most job types, salaries are lower. In Scotland and the North of England, salaries typically range from £18,000 to £26,000. And Welsh companies and firms in Northern Ireland pay between £19,000 and £27,000. It is rare for office managers to receive share options, company cars or other such perks.

The difference between high and low salaries, especially in the South East, is very large, reflecting both the widely varying importance of the role at different companies, and the shortage of strong candidates in the sector over the last few years. There has been quite an acute shortage of good administrative people in the South East in recent years, but this appears to have eased.

Indeed, if you have struggled to hire someone good as office manager, you might well find more good candidates available today than has been the case for some years.

Given the recent low inflation and the current economic uncertainty, it is unlikely that salaries for many jobs, and in particular general administrative roles such as the office manager, will rise significantly. Data from Reed Employment, one of the larger, national high street recruitment agencies, anticipated a salary rise for Office Managers of approximately 3.6% over the next year before the change in the political and economic climate. It seems likely now, in the light these changes the actual figure will be lower.