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Manchester City had the highest estimated wage bill in a March 2025 ranking of all 20 Premier League clubs: £223.652 million. Ipswich Town was lowest, at £40.040 million. These are Capology-based industry estimates, not definitive audited accounts, and other published snapshots show different figures and rankings.
2024/25 Premier League wage bill ranking
The table below reproduces Planet Football’s ranking, published on 1 March 2025 and attributed to Capology. Amounts are estimated annual wages in pounds.
| Rank | Club | Estimated annual wages |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | £223,652,000 |
| 2 | Arsenal | £172,666,000 |
| 3 | Manchester United | £171,418,000 |
| 4 | Chelsea | £161,850,000 |
| 5 | Liverpool | £129,376,000 |
| 6 | Aston Villa | £123,864,000 |
| 7 | Tottenham | £111,956,000 |
| 8 | West Ham United | £100,230,000 |
| 9 | Newcastle United | £93,132,000 |
| 10 | Everton | £72,462,000 |
| 11 | Fulham | £71,266,000 |
| 12 | Crystal Palace | £68,510,000 |
| 13 | Leicester City | £65,676,000 |
| 14 | Brighton | £59,826,000 |
| 15 | Wolves | £57,512,000 |
| 16 | Nottingham Forest | £55,016,000 |
| 17 | Bournemouth | £50,908,000 |
| 18 | Southampton | £48,542,000 |
| 19 | Brentford | £41,756,000 |
| 20 | Ipswich Town | £40,040,000 |
Planet Football cautions that the figures are industry estimates and “unlikely to be 100% accurate.” Its article described the table as subject to updates during the 2024/25 campaign, so the ranking is best read as a dated snapshot rather than a final accounting of every club’s costs. Planet Football’s March 2025 ranking.
What the estimates show
Manchester City leads the list
City’s estimated £223.652 million is more than £50 million above Arsenal’s £172.666 million in this snapshot. The figures rank City first and Arsenal second; they do not establish a definitive audited gap between the clubs.
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Arsenal and Manchester United are nearly level
Arsenal’s estimate exceeds Manchester United’s £171.418 million by £1.248 million. That narrow difference makes their order particularly sensitive to the source and date used.
The lower end is closely grouped
Ipswich Town is last at £40.040 million, with Brentford just above at £41.756 million. The estimate places the two within £1.716 million of each other.
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Why wage-bill rankings differ
A separate William Hill list, marked correct as of December 2024, reports Manchester City at £201.8 million, Manchester United at £185.5 million, Arsenal at £172.1 million and Chelsea at £171.2 million. Compared with Planet Football’s March 2025 snapshot, the reported amounts differ and United and Arsenal switch places. William Hill’s December 2024 salary list.
These lists should not be treated as interchangeable accounts. A comparison needs to identify its estimate source and date, and whether “wages” refers to estimated player payroll or a broader reported staff wage cost. The cited publications do not establish a common like-for-like definition for every club.
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League-wide wage costs provide context, not a club-by-club check
Deloitte’s 2026 Annual Review says Premier League clubs’ aggregate wage costs reached £4.4 billion in 2024/25, up £381 million, with wages equal to 65% of revenue. Deloitte gives the comparable wages-to-revenue ratio for 2023/24 as 64%. These are league-level figures; they do not validate the individual club estimates in the ranking above. Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance: Premier League Clubs, dated 8 July 2026.
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