FOI reference: FOI-2026-3438
You asked
Under the Freedom of Information Act please could you provide a CSV table (annual ASHE extract, 2015–2024) showing:
- the count of employees with annual pay in the band £90,000–£99,999, by year from 2015 to 2024;
- among those, the number recorded as part-time and number recorded as full-time, by year;
- the counts broken down by sex and age bands (18–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60+).
Please could you also provide the same series for comparator income bands: £60,000-69,999; 70,000–79,999; 80,000–89,999; 100,000–109,999?
And could you let me know how “part-time” is defined?
We said
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request regarding estimates of counts of employees in specific earning bands (£90,000–£99,999; £60,000–69,999; 70,000–79,999; 80,000–89,999; 100,000–109,999) for the years 2015 to 2024. You requested both the total number of employees in each band and the total broken down by different characteristics (full-time and part-time jobs, various age groups, and sex).
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. ASHE is based on a 1% sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue and Customs' Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records.
Unfortunately, we do not hold information showing estimates of counts of employees in the earning bands you request for the years 2015 to 2024, nor broken down by the characteristics you have listed. To fulfil this request, we would need to create new information involving the calculation of weighted counts. Public authorities are not obliged to create new information in response to FOI requests. For additional context, we have not previously created this information, as this analysis would produce numerous small subgroups which, most cases, would be too small to be statistically accurate and are likely to be disclosive.
The numbers you have requested could be created by conducting analysis on the ASHE microdata, which can be accessed via the ONS Secure Research Service (SRS). The SRS allows accredited researchers to access some microdata in a secure environment. If you are interested in becoming an accredited researcher, more information can be found on our website: Become an accredited researcher. Please note, we caution users against using ASHE for counts of employees. We also caution against computing statistics for small sample size groups, which are unreliable and may not be publishable due to statistical disclosure rules. Some of the groups you have listed in this request have very small sizes.
Regarding your question about how to define part-time, part-time is defined as employees working less than 30 paid hours per week (less than 25 for the teaching professions).