Print finishing and binding workers: salary in the UK
About £23,286 a year after tax (England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 2026/27)
median salary a year, full-time, +0.8% on last year
£2,288 a month About £1,941 a month after tax
Gross pay before tax, including bonuses, commission and overtime. Not included: benefits in kind such as a company car. About the data
Pay range
The dark part is the middle half of full-time employees (25% to 75%); the light bar runs from 10% to 90%. ONS doesn't publish the highest or lowest salary, and x means a figure wasn't published.
Pay by year
The median went from £21,455 in 2021 to £27,454 in 2026 (+28%); for all full-time employees in the UK it changed by +31% over the same years.
Figures by year
| P10 | P25 | Median | P75 | P90 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | x | £18,452 | £21,455 | x | x |
| 2022 | x | x | £22,943 | x | x |
| 2023 | x | x | £25,724 | x | x |
| 2024 | x | x | £25,602 | x | x |
| 2025 | x | x | £27,242 | x | x |
| 2026 | x | £24,377 | £27,454 | x | x |
ONS figures for each year, not adjusted for inflation. Years before 2021 used a different occupation classification, so they can't be compared. Earlier years are ONS's revised figures; the latest is provisional.
Half of full-time employees in this occupation earn less than £27,454 a year and half earn more. That is 33% less than the median for all full-time employees in the UK (£40,911).
Ranked by median, it is number 334 of the 362 occupations with a published figure.
The mean (£33,138) is well above the median: a minority in this job earn much more than most.
At the median salary, take-home pay after Income Tax and National Insurance is about £1,941 a month in England, Wales or Northern Ireland and £1,944 in Scotland.
Percentiles
| Percentile | Annual | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th (P10) | x | x |
| 20th | x | x |
| 25th (P25) | £24,377 | £2,031 |
| 30th | £24,882 | £2,073 |
| 40th | £26,614 | £2,218 |
| Median (50th) | £27,454 | £2,288 |
| 60th | x | x |
| 70th | x | x |
| 75th (P75) | x | x |
| 80th | x | x |
| 90th (P90) | x | x |
Men and women
| Median | Mean | Jobs (thousands) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men | £27,477 | £34,332 | x |
| Women | x | £28,939 | x |
Take-home pay at the median
| Where you live | Per year | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| England, Wales, NI | £23,286 | £1,941 |
| Scotland | £23,326 | £1,944 |
After Income Tax and National Insurance for 2026 to 2027, with the standard tax code and no pension or student loan. Work out your own take-home pay · Take-home pay on £27,000
Job titles in this occupation
ONS codes these 119 job titles to SOC 5423 Print finishing and binding workers. Pay figures are for the whole occupation, not for each title.
- Binder
- Binder's assistant
- Bindery assistant
- Bindery worker
- Blocker
- Book binder
- Book finisher
- Book folder
- Book repairer
- Book restorer
- Bookbinder
- Bookbinder's assistant
- Braille copyist
- Card perforator
- Cartridge cassette loader
- Cloth cutter
- Collator
- Collotype machinist
- Colour film worker
- Colour prover
- Colour retoucher
- Colourer
- Combining machinist
- Coverer
- Cutter
- Dark room assistant
- Darkroom technician
- Developer
- Dis hand
- Dryer
- Duster
- Electro copper worker
- Embosser
- Embossing machinist
- Enlarger
- Film assembler
- Film developer
- Film developing machinist
- Film joiner
- Film loader
- Film printing machinist
- Film processor
- Film splicer
- Finisher
- Finishing manager
- Finishing supervisor
- Folder
- Foreman
- Forwarder
- Gatherer
- General hand
- Gilder
- Gilt edger
- Gold finisher
- Grader
- Grinder
- Hand colourer
- Handler
- Indexer
- Leather binder
Show all 119 titles
- Leather case maker
- Leather cutter
- Leather embosser
- Machinist
- Marbler
- Mounter
- Negative assembler
- Numberer
- Offset duplicating machinist
- Pager
- Paper marbler
- Patcher
- Pattern book maker
- Pattern perforator
- Perfect binding machinist
- Perforator
- Photo finisher
- Photographer's mounter
- Photographic colourist
- Photographic finisher
- Photographic processor
- Photographic retoucher
- Photolitho retoucher
- Plater
- Pocket book maker
- Postcard colourist
- Presentation assistant
- Presser
- Print colourer
- Print finisher
- Printer's binder
- Printer's finisher
- Printing warehouse assistant
- Process assistant
- Process mounter
- Process prover
- Process worker
- Proof passer
- Prover
- Publisher's binder
- Reeler
- Retoucher
- Roller
- Sensitometric calculator
- Sensitometric control assistant
- Sewer
- Sewing machinist
- Spooler
- Spotter
- Stamp perforator
- Stationer's binder
- Stitcher
- Synchroniser
- Table man
- Tinter
- Trimmer
- Vellum binder
- Vellum sewer
- Washer
Similar occupations
All jobs in Skilled trades occupations
Source: ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2026 provisional, Table 14.7a (full-time employees, gross annual pay, UK, tax year ending 5 April 2026). Provisional figures may be revised.