Electricians revealed as the highest-earning self-employed pros in the UK

There are pros and cons to going solo, however over the last few years more and more people have made the switch to self-employed work.

With hundreds of thousands of self-employed pros using Bark.com, we’re in a unique position to find out which professional is the highest paid in the UK, when self-employed, and how it compares to their employed counterpart’s salary.

Surveying 20,000 professionals across 11 key sectors from our platform, we asked service providers about their earnings to find out the UK salary average for each service. In addition to information on their earnings, self-employed professionals were asked about their lifestyle and work-homelife balance. The research took a few months to collect due to the magnitude of the project. but allowed for a wealth of data for us to draw our conclusions from.

When results were processed it was obvious across all sectors that those who are self-employed have the potential to earn far more than their employed counterparts, and in some cases more than double.

Interestingly, electricians top the list of the highest earning self-employed pros, and independent cleaners can earn close to £30k a year, three times the amount of employed cleaners!

Here are the highest paid self-employed service providers in the UK:

1. Electricians £51,200

Employed salary £27,287

2. Counsellors £45,111

Employed salary £24,544

3. Landscape gardeners £40,140

Employed salary £19,143

4. Make-up artists £38,918

Employed salary £20,952

5. Graphic designers £38,760

Employed salary £22,012

6. Photographers £36,823

Employed salary £20,812

7. Plumbers £36,359

Employed salary £23,788

8. Tutors £34,147

Employed salary £22,630

9. Painter and decorators £33,075

Employed salary £21,405

10. Personal trainers £33,029

Employed salary £19,494

11. Cleaners £29,584

Employed salary £10,573

Despite a massive 90% of respondents stating that their workload is much more now that they are self-employed, more than two-thirds (68%) of professionals stated that they have been far more successful in keeping a healthy home and work balance. Nearly three quarters (73%) of respondents felt that their increased stress levels are worth it for the monetary increase.

Kai Feller, Bark.com co-founder, said,

“At Bark we work with thousands of self-employed sole traders, and thought it would be interesting to see how much they earn a year. We picked the top 11 most popular self-employed sectors in the UK, and you can see why so many people decide to go self-employed – a good living can be made from all of the professions.

“The survey took a good couple of months, but was well worth the wait, because the results speak for themselves – being self-employed results in a much higher income. We were expecting them to earn more, but almost double on average is a huge increase. That being said being self-employed comes with a lot more work, responsibility and pressure more often than not, it’s definitely not a career choice to be taken lightly.”

Turns out that going self-employed might be more beneficial than you thought!

*https://www.payscale.com/