Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings: 2012 Provisional Results

• In April 2012 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were £506, up 1.5% from £498 in 2011

• For men, full-time earnings were £546, up 1.4%, compared with £449 for women, up 1.9%

• The gender pay gap (i.e. the difference between men's and women's earnings as a percentage of men's earnings) based on median gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees decreased to 9.6% from 10.5% in 2011

• For the year ending 5 April 2012 median gross annual earnings for full-time employees (who had been in the same job for at least 12 months, including those whose pay was affected by absence) were £26,500, an increase of 1.4% from the previous year

• Between 2011 and 2012 the gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees in the bottom decile increased by 2.3% to £7.16 per hour. This compared with a fall of 0.2% in the top decile to £26.56 per hour

• In April 2012 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were highest in London, at £653, and lowest in Wales, at £453

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is based on a 1% 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 estimates from the 2012 survey and revised estimates from the 2011 survey. Unless otherwise stated, all figures in this bulletin relate to employees on adult rates whose earnings for the survey pay period were not affected by absence.

In April 2012 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were £506, up 1.5% from £498 in 2011.

Men’s median full-time weekly earnings increased by 1.4% to £546 between 2011 and 2012, compared with an increase of 1.9% for women to £449.

Part-time median weekly earnings were £155 in April 2012, up 1.3% from 2011. For women, part-time weekly earnings were £158, compared with £146 for men.

The median gross weekly earnings for all employee jobs (full-time and part-time) were £405, an increase of 1.3% from 2011.

For the tax year ending 5 April 2012 the median gross annual earnings for full-time employees on adult rates who had been in the same job for at least 12 months (including those whose pay was affected by absence) were £26,500. This was an increase of 1.4% compared with £26,100 in the year ending 5 April 2011.

The median gross annual earnings for men were £28,700, up 1.2% from 2011, and for women were £23,100, up 2.0%.

Excluding overtime, median gross hourly earnings of full-time employees were £12.76 per hour in April 2012, up 1.6% on 2011. The median hourly earnings of men increased by 1.1% compared with an increase of 2.2% for women.

Gender pay differences

The earnings of women relative to men vary according to whether an employee works full-time or part-time. Median gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) of part-time employees were 37.2% less than the earnings of full-time employees in April 2012. At the same time, the Labour Force Survey shows that the UK workforce consisted of approximately 12.7 million males (51% of the employee workforce) and 12.3 million females (49% of the workforce).

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

In April 2012 men’s median gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) grew by 1.1% to £13.27, up from £13.12 in 2011. In comparison, women’s hourly earnings were £12.00, a 2.2% increase compared with £11.75 in 2011. The gender pay gap (i.e. the difference between men's and women's hourly earnings as a percentage of men's earnings) for full-time employees therefore decreased to 9.6% from 10.5% in 2011.

Part-time

For part-time employees, men’s median gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) were £7.72 in April 2012, up 1.0% from £7.64 in 2011. In comparison, women’s hourly earnings were £8.12, an increase of 1.2% from £8.03. The gender pay difference for part-time employees was therefore in the opposite direction to that of full-time employees, widening slightly to -5.2%, compared with -5.1% in 2011.

All

In April 2012 the gender pay gap based on median hourly earnings for all employees (full-time and part-time) decreased to 19.7% from 20.2% in 2011.

Figure 6: Gender pay gap for median gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime); UK, April 2000 to 2012

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) - Office for National Statistics

Download this image Figure 6: Gender pay gap for median gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime); UK, April 2000 to 2012

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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 gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime) were £16.50 in April 2012, up 0.4% from £16.43 in 2011. Women’s mean hourly earnings increased by 1.7% to £14.05 compared with £13.82 in 2011. This means that the gender pay difference for full-time employees narrowed to 14.9% from 15.9% in 2011.

Part-time

For part-time employees, men’s mean hourly earnings (excluding overtime) were £11.71, down from £11.88 in 2011, compared with women’s hourly earnings of £10.79, up from £10.70. The gender pay gap for part-time employees has therefore narrowed to 7.9%, from 9.9% in 2011. This is in contrast to the pay gap for median earnings, which is in the opposite direction. The reason for this is that there are a larger number of men than women who are working part-time with high earnings, which skews the distribution and increases the mean relative to the median.

All

The gender pay difference based on the mean for all employees has decreased to 18.6% in 2012 from 19.6% in 2011.

Figure 7: Gender pay gap for mean gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime); UK, April 2000 to 2012

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) - Office for National Statistics

Notes:

1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence
2. Full-time defined as employees working more than 30 paid hours per week (or 25 or more for the teaching professions)
3. Dashed lines represent discontinuities in 2004, 2006 and 2011 ASHE estimates (see background notes)
4. Gender pay gap defined as difference between men's and women's hourly earnings as a percentage of men's earnings
5. 2012 data are provisional

Download this image Figure 7: Gender pay gap for mean gross hourly earnings (excluding overtime); UK, April 2000 to 2012

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Distribution of hourly earnings (excluding overtime)

Between 2011 and 2012 the hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees in the bottom decile grew by 2.3%, compared with a decrease of 0.2% for the top decile. The comparable figures for part-time employees were an increase of 2.5% and a decrease of 1.1% respectively.

In 2012 10% of full-time employees earned less than £7.16 per hour, while 10% earned more than £26.56 per hour.

The hourly earnings for the top decile of full-time employees were 208% of the median while the hourly earnings of the bottom decile were 56% of the median.

Gender pay differences

In April 2012 the gender pay gap for full-time employees in the top decile, at 19.0%, was larger than those for the median and bottom decile.

For part-time employees, there was no gender pay gap for the bottom decile, a gap of -5.2% for the median (i.e. women’s earnings were higher than men’s), and a gap of 17.6% for the top decile.

For all employees (full-time and part-time), the gender pay difference was smallest in the bottom decile, at 7.3%, and largest in the top decile, at 22.9%.

The median gross weekly pay of full-time employees in the public sector was £565 in 2012, up 1.6% from £556 in 2011. For the private sector the comparable figure was £479, up 1.5% from £472 in 2011.

The compositions of the public and private sectors are different. Consequently differences in gross weekly earnings do not reveal differences in rates of pay for comparable jobs. For example, many of the lowest paid occupations, such as bar and restaurant staff, hairdressers, elementary sales occupations and cashiers, exist primarily in the private sector, while there are a larger proportion of graduate-level and professional occupations in the public sector.

In April 2012 the distribution of median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees showed that earnings were highest for the 40 to 49-year-old age group, at £573. Median gross weekly earnings increased until employees reached this age band and steadily decreased thereafter.

There were some differences between the distribution of earnings by age for men and women. Men’s median weekly earnings were highest in the 40 to 49-year-old age group, at £622, whereas women’s earnings were highest in the 30 to 39-year-old age group, at £527.

In April 2012 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were highest in London, at £653 (29% higher than the national median), and lowest in Wales, at £453 (11% lower than the national median).

The regional earnings distribution differed by sex. While weekly earnings were highest in London for both sexes, earnings for men were lowest in Northern Ireland, at £479, and for women they were lowest in the East Midlands, at £402.

In April 2012 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were highest for Managers and Senior Officials, at £738 (46% higher than the median for all employees), and lowest for Sales and Customer Service occupations, at £323 (36% lower than the median for all employees).

Again, there were some differences in the distribution of earnings for men and women. The highest and lowest earnings by major occupation group for men mirrored that of the overall distribution. However, for women, weekly earnings were highest in Professional occupations, at £653, and lowest in Elementary occupations, at £279.

Additional payments (i.e. overtime, bonuses, commission and shift pay) accounted for 5.1% of mean full-time gross weekly earnings in April 2012. For male employees additional earnings accounted for 6.1% of mean total weekly earnings compared with 3.1% for women.

In April 2012 full-time employees worked a mean average of 39.1 paid hours per week (including overtime). In comparison, part-time employees worked 18.1 hours per week.

For full-timers, men’s weekly paid hours have decreased by 0.1 hours since April 2011 and women’s paid hours have remained the same. For part-time men there was a 0.1 hour increase in mean weekly paid hours and for women, again, there was no change.

The proportion of full-time employees working paid overtime in April 2012 was 18.6%, up 0.2 percentage points from 2011. Full-time employees worked a mean average of 1.1 paid overtime hours per week in 2012. The percentage of full-time men who worked paid overtime has risen from 22.7% to 22.9% between 2011 and 2012. There has also been an increase for full-time women over the same period, from 11.7% to 12.0%.