Statistical bulletin: 2011 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (SOC 2000)

Key findings

• In April 2011 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were £501, up 0.4 per cent from £499 in 2010.
• For men, full-time earnings were £539, up 0.2 per cent, compared with £445 for women, up 1.4 per cent.
• Median gross weekly earnings for all employees were £404, the same as in 2010.
• Median gross annual earnings for full-time employees (including those whose pay was affected by absence) were £26,200, an increase of 1.4 per cent from 2010.
• Median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were highest in London at £651 and lowest in Northern Ireland at £451.
• Between 2010 and 2011 the hourly earnings, excluding overtime, for full-time employees of the bottom decile grew by 0.1 per cent to £7.01 per hour, compared with growth of 1.8 per cent in the top decile to £26.75 per hour.

Summary

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is based on a 1 per cent sample of employee jobs. This is drawn from HM Revenue and Customs Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records. ASHE collects information on the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours paid. Results are produced for various industrial, occupational and geographic breakdowns, as well as by public and private sectors and age groups. This bulletin contains provisional results from the 2011 survey and revised results from the 2010 survey.

Weekly earnings

Median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were £501, up 0.4 per cent from £499 in 2010.

Men’s median full-time weekly earnings increased by 0.2 per cent to £539 in the year to April 2011, compared with growth of 1.4 per cent for women to £445.

Median full-time gross weekly earnings

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (21.5 Kb)

Part-time median weekly earnings were £154, up by 0.2 per cent. For women, part-time median weekly earnings were £158, compared with £143 for men.

The median gross weekly earnings for all employee jobs, regardless of whether the employee was full-time or part-time, were £404, the same as in 2010.

Median full-time gross weekly earnings

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (14.6 Kb)

Median gross weekly earnings

		Full-time	Part-time	All
£ per week
April 2010	Men	537.6	141.9	496.5
	Women	439.0	157.3	315.8
	All	498.5	153.7	403.8
April 2011	Men	538.5	142.6	494.9
	Women	445.1	157.9	318.4
	All	500.7	154.0	403.9
Percentage change	Men	0.2	0.5	-0.3
	Women	1.4	0.4	0.8
	All	0.4	0.2	0.0

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download table

• XLS format
  (9 Kb)

Annual earnings

For the tax year ending 5 April 2011 the median gross annual earnings for full-time employees were £26,200, an increase of 1.4 per cent compared with £25,900 in 2010. The median gross annual earnings for men were £28,400, up 1.2 per cent from 2010, and for full-time women they were £22,900, up 1.9 per cent.

Median full-time gross annual earnings

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates who have been in the same job for at least 12 months, including those whose pay was affected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (15.1 Kb)

Median gross annual earnings for full-time employees

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates who have been in the same job for at least 12 months, including those whose pay was affected by absence

Hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Excluding overtime, median hourly earnings of full-time employees on adult rates of pay whose earnings were not affected by absence were £12.62 per hour in April 2011, up 1.0 per cent on 2010. The median hourly earnings of men increased by 0.8 per cent compared with an increase of 1.9 per cent for women.

 

Median hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (16 Kb)

Median hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Gender pay differences

The earnings of women relative to men vary according to whether an employee is full-time or part-time. Median hourly earnings, excluding overtime, of part-time employees were 36.6 per cent less than the earnings of full-time employees in April 2011. At the same time the UK employee workforce consisted of approximately 12.8 million males (51 per cent of workforce) and 12.3 million females (49 per cent of workforce).

Composition of the employee workforce

Source: Labour Force Survey - Office for National Statistics

Download chart

• XLS format
  (21.5 Kb)

There is a difference in the proportion of male and female employees who worked full- and part-time. For male employees, 88 per cent worked full-time and 12 per cent worked part-time, while the comparable figures for female employees were 58 per cent and 42 per cent respectively. This highlights the fact that women work part-time more than men and consequently are more likely to receive lower hourly rates of pay.

Workforce composition of men / women and full-time / part-time employees

Table source: Office for National Statistics

Median hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Full-time

In 2011 men’s full-time median hourly earnings grew by 0.8 per cent to £13.11, up from £13.00 in 2010, while women’s hourly earnings were £11.91, a 1.9 per cent increase compared with £11.69. The gender pay gap has therefore decreased to 9.1 per cent from 10.1 per cent in 2010.

Gender pay gap for median hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence
2. Vertical lines represent discontinuities in 2004 and 2006 ASHE results

Download chart

• XLS format
  (17.5 Kb)

Part-time

For part-time employees, men’s median hourly earnings excluding overtime were £7.67, an increase of 0.1 per cent on last year, compared with women’s hourly earnings of £8.10, an increase of 1.3 per cent from £8.00. The negative gender pay difference for part-time employees has therefore widened to -5.6 per cent, compared with -4.3 per cent in 2010.

All

The gender pay comparison based on median hourly earnings for all employees decreased to 19.5 per cent from 19.8 per cent in 2010.

Median hourly earnings excluding overtime with gender pay differences

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Mean hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Although ONS’s headline estimates of gender pay differences are based on median hourly earnings (excluding overtime), mean hourly earnings provide a useful supplementary measure.

Full-time

Men’s mean hourly earnings were £16.44, up 1.1 per cent from £16.27 in 2010. Women’s mean hourly earnings increased by 1.8 per cent to £14.00 compared with £13.75 in 2010. As a consequence, the gender pay difference narrowed to 14.9 per cent from 15.5 per cent in 2010.

Gender pay gap for mean hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence
2. Vertical lines represent discontinuities in 2004 and 2006 ASHE results

Download chart

• XLS format
  (18.8 Kb)

Part-time

For part-time employees, men’s mean hourly earnings excluding overtime were £11.85, down from £11.86 in 2010, compared with women’s hourly earnings of £10.77, up from £10.61. The mean gender pay comparison for part-time employees has therefore narrowed to 9.1 per cent, from 10.5 per cent in 2010.

All

The gender pay difference based on the mean for all employees has decreased to 18.6 per cent from 19.3 per cent in 2010.

Mean hourly earnings excluding overtime with gender pay differences

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Distribution of hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Between 2010 and 2011 the hourly earnings for full-time employees of the bottom decile grew by 0.1 per cent, compared with growth of 1.8 per cent for the top decile. The comparable figures for part-time employees were 2.2 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.

Distribution of hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (24 Kb)

In 2011 10 per cent of full-time employees earned less than £7.01 per hour, while 10 per cent earned more than £26.75 per hour.

The hourly earnings of the top decile of full-time employees were 212 per cent of the median while the hourly earnings of the bottom decile were 56 per cent of the median.

Distribution of hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Gender pay differences

The gender pay gap for full-time employees in the top decile, at 19.6 per cent, was larger than those for the median and bottom decile.

For part-time employees, there were negative gender pay differences (women's earnings were higher than men's) for the bottom decile and the median, and a difference of 19.9 per cent for the top decile.

For all employees, the gender pay difference was smallest in the bottom decile at 7.3 per cent and largest in the top decile at 23.3 per cent.

Gender pay difference by distribution of hourly earnings, excluding overtime

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Public and private sector pay

The median gross weekly pay of full-time employees in the public sector was £556 in 2011, up 0.3 per cent from £554 in 2010. For the private sector the comparable figure was £476, up 0.8 per cent from £473 in 2010.

Median full-time gross weekly earnings for public and private sectors

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (14.6 Kb)

Median full-time gross weekly earnings and percentage change

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Gender pay differences

For full-time employees the median gender pay difference in the public sector was 9.2 per cent, down from 9.9 per cent in 2010. In the private sector, the pay gap was 18.4 per cent, down from 19.7 per cent in 2010.

For part-time employees, the gender pay difference in the public sector was 18.3 per cent, a decrease from the 2010 figure of 20.5.  In the private sector, women's part-time hourly earnings were higher than men's, resulting in a negative gender pay difference of -1.2 per cent, compared to -1.9 per cent in 2010.

For all employees, the public sector saw a decrease in the gender pay difference to 18.0 per cent from 19.0 per cent in 2010, while the gender pay comparison for the private sector narrowed to 26.8 per cent, from 27.6 per cent in the previous year.

Gender pay gap for median hourly earnings, excluding overtime, for public and private sectors

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (14.6 Kb)

Gender pay difference for median hourly earnings, excluding overtime: by public/private sector

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Earnings by age group

In April 2011 the distribution of median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees showed that earnings for 40 to 49-year-olds were highest at £565. Median gross weekly earnings increased until employees reached this age band and steadily decreased thereafter.

Median full-time gross weekly earnings

Notes:

1. All employees aged 16-17 and employees on adult rates, whose pay was unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (14 Kb)

Median full-time gross weekly earnings by age

Table notes:

1. All employees aged 16-17 and employees on adult rates, whose pay was unaffected by absence

Gender pay differences

In 2011 the largest gender pay difference for full-time employees was for 50 to 59-year-olds at 16.0 per cent. There were negative gender pay gaps in the 16 to 17 age group (-0.8 per cent) and the 22 to 29 age group (-3.6 per cent).

For part-time employees, the gender pay difference was largest for 50 to 59-year-olds at 14.4 per cent. There were negative gender pay gaps (women's earnings were higher than men's) in the 22 to 29 and 30 to 39 age groups, at -2.8 per cent and -6.2 per cent.

The largest pay gap for all employees was in the 40 to 49 age group, at 27.2 per cent. In 2010, the largest difference was in the 50 to 49 group at 27.5 per cent. The smallest pay gap in 2011 was in the 16 to 17 age group at 0.0 per cent.

Gender pay difference for median hourly earnings, excluding overtime, by age

Table notes:

1. All employees aged 16-17 and employees on adult rates, whose pay was unaffected by absence

Regional earnings

In April 2011 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were highest in London at £651 (30 per cent higher than the national median) and lowest in Northern Ireland at £451 (10 per cent lower than the national median).

Median full-time gross weekly earnings by region

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (15.6 Kb)

Median full-time gross weekly earnings by region

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Gender pay differences

For full-time employees the gender pay difference was highest for the South East at 14.9 per cent. In Northern Ireland there was a negative gender pay gap of -2.0 per cent.

In eleven of the twelve regions, women's part-time hourly earnings were higher than men's, resulting in negative gender pay differences. The widest pay gap for part-time workers, minus 11.7 per cent, was in London, while there was a positive pay gap of 1.2 per cent in the North East.

For all employees, the gender pay difference was largest in the South East (23.6 per cent) and smallest in Northern Ireland (8.1 per cent).

Gender pay difference for median hourly earnings, excluding overtime, by region

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Earnings by occupation

In April 2011 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were highest for Managers and Senior Officials at £729 (46 per cent higher than the figure for all employees) and lowest for Sales and Customer Service occupations at £304 (39 per cent lower than median weekly earnings for all employees).

Median full-time gross weekly earnings by occupation

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (14.6 Kb)

Median full-time gross weekly earnings by occupation

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Gender pay differences

For full-time employees the gender pay difference was highest for Skilled Trades occupations at 24.9 per cent and lowest for Professional occupations at 4.2 per cent.

The largest gender pay gap for part-time employees was for Managers and Senior Officials at 19.4 per cent. The widest negative pay gap, -13.4 per cent, was in Associate Professional and Technical occupations.

For all employees, the gender pay comparison was largest for Skilled Trades occupations at 29.4 per cent, and lowest for Professional occupations at 1.3 per cent.

Gender pay difference for median hourly earnings, excluding overtime, by occupation

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

The make-up of earnings

Additional payments accounted for 5.2 per cent of mean full-time gross weekly earnings in April 2011. For male employees additional earnings accounted for 6.3 per cent of mean total weekly earnings, compared with 3.0 per cent for women.

Components of full-time mean gross weekly pay

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (15.1 Kb)

Components of full-time mean weekly earnings

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Total weekly and overtime paid hours

Mean weekly paid hours of full-time employees were 39.1 hours in April 2011. Mean part-time paid hours were 18.1 hours.

Full-time mean weekly paid hours

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (15.8 Kb)

Mean weekly paid hours of work

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

For full-time employees, both men's and women's paid hours have decreased by 0.1 hours since April 2010.  For part-time employees, men's paid hours decreased by less than 0.1 hours and women's paid hours decreased by 0.2 hours.

The proportion of full-time employees working paid overtime in 2011 was 18.4 per cent, down 1.2 percentage points compared with 19.6 per cent in 2010. The mean number of paid overtime hours for full time employees was 1.1 in 2011. The percentage of men working full-time who were paid overtime fell from 24.1 per cent to 22.8 per cent, while 11.5 per cent of full-time women worked paid overtime compared with 12.7 per cent in 2010.

Full-time mean paid overtime hours

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Download chart

• XLS format
  (14.6 Kb)

Paid overtime hours: percentage who worked overtime and mean hours worked

Table notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

Background notes

1. Survey details

   The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is based on a 1 per cent sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) PAYE records. Information on earnings and hours is obtained from employers and treated confidentially. ASHE does not cover the self-employed nor does it cover employees not paid during the reference period. In 2011 information related to the pay period which included 13 April.

   This bulletin contains provisional results from the 2011 survey and revised results from the 2010 survey. More detailed information is available on the ONS website. 

   Basic Quality Information

2. Link to Summary Quality Report

   A Summary Quality Report for ASHE (189.4 Kb Pdf) can be found on the ONS website.  This report describes, in detail, the intended uses of the statistics presented in this publication, their general quality and the methods used to produce them.

3. Common pitfalls in interpreting the series

   The headline statistics for ASHE are based on the median rather than the mean. The median is the value below which 50 per cent of employees fall. It is ONS's preferred measure of average earnings as it is less affected by a relatively small number of very high earners and the skewed distribution of earnings. It therefore gives a better indication of typical pay than the mean.

   Various methods can be used to measure the earnings of women relative to men. ONS's headline estimates of the gender pay gap are for hourly earnings excluding overtime. Including overtime can distort the picture as men work relatively more overtime than women. Although median and mean hourly pay excluding overtime provide useful comparisons of men’s and women’s earnings, they do not reveal differences in rates of pay for comparable jobs. This is because such measures do not allow for the different employment characteristics of men and women, such as the proportion in different occupations and their length of time in jobs.

4. Relevance

   The earnings information presented relates to gross pay before tax, National Insurance or other deductions, and excludes payments in kind. With the exception of annual earnings, the results are restricted to earnings relating to the survey pay period and so exclude payments of arrears from another period made during the survey period; any payments due as a result of a pay settlement but not yet paid at the time of the survey will also be excluded.

   For particular groups of employees, changes in median earnings between successive surveys may be affected by changes in the timing of pay settlements, in some cases reflecting more than one settlement and in others no settlement at all.

   Most of the published ASHE analyses (that is excluding annual earnings) relate to full-time employees on adult rates whose earnings for the survey pay period were not affected by absence. They do not include the earnings of those who did not work a full week, and whose earnings were reduced for other reasons, such as sickness. Also, they do not include the earnings of employees not on adult rates of pay, most of whom will be young people. More information on the earnings of young people and part-time employees is available in the main survey results. Full-time employees are defined as those who work more than 30 paid hours per week or those in teaching professions working 25 paid hours or more per week.

5. Accuracy

   Revisions

   In line with normal practice this release contains revised estimates from the 2010 survey results which were published on 8 December 2010. These results take account of some corrections to the original 2010 data that were identified during the validation of the results for 2011, as well as late returns. Both the 2011 ASHE results and the revised estimates for 2010 ASHE will be made available from 23 November 2011.

   Coefficient of Variation

   The coefficient of variation (cv) is the ratio of the standard error of an estimate to the estimate, expressed as a percentage. The smaller the cv, the higher the quality of the estimate. The cvs for 2011 ASHE estimates are shown in the table below:

   Coefficients of variation (in per cent) for estimates of median gross weekly earnings and hourly earnings, excluding overtime

   	Full-time	Part-time
   Median gross weekly earnings
   Men	0.2	0.9
   Women	0.4	0.5
   All	0.2	0.5
   Median hourly earnings, excluding overtime
   Men	0.3	0.8
   Women	0.4	0.3
   All	0.2	0.1

   Table notes:

   1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

   Download table

   • XLS format
     (10.7 Kb)

   Response

   The 2011 ASHE is based on approximately 190,000 returns.

6. Coherence

   The Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) statistic, based on the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey of about 9,000 employers, is the lead measure of short-term changes in average earnings in Great Britain. Figures are available with industrial breakdowns and public/private sector splits. No information is available on occupation, hours worked, and other characteristics of the workforce.

   The Labour Force Survey (LFS) collects information on the earnings and normal and actual hours worked of about 15,000 people aged 16 and over each quarter. In addition it collects data on a wide range of personal characteristics, including education level and ethnic origin. This enables the preparation of statistics on levels and distribution of earnings similar to the ASHE but with lower precision due to the much smaller sample size.
   
   

7. Notes on tables

   The percentage changes of constituent items in tables may not always agree exactly with the values shown due to rounding.

8. Publication policy

   Details of the policy governing the release of new data are available from the Media Relations Office. Also available is a list of the names of those given pre-publication access to the contents of this release (48.2 Kb Pdf) .

   National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.
   
   © Crown copyright 2011.
   
   You may use or re-use this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.

   These National Statistics are released according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

9. Details of the policy governing the release of new data are available by visiting www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/index.html or from the Media Relations Office email: media.relations@ons.gsi.gov.uk

   These National Statistics are produced to high professional standards and released according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Statistical contacts