Earnings and working hours

Average weekly earnings of people in the UK and information on the gender pay gap and low pay. Data from Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).

Spotlight

AWE: Whole Economy Year on Year Three Month Average Growth (%): Seasonally Adjusted Total Pay Excluding Arrears

Year on year 3 months average

8.3 %

2021 JUL

Release date:: 14 September 2021
Next release:: 12 October 2021

View this data

More data

Employee earnings in the UK: 2020

What's in the bulletin?

Statistics in this bulletin (based on the Annual Survey for Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2020) relate to the pay period that includes 22 April 2020, at which time approximately 8.8 million employees were furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS); the estimates in this bulletin include furloughed employees and are based on actual payments made to the employee from company payrolls and the hours on which this pay was calculated, which in the case of furloughed employees are their usual hours.
Median weekly pay for full-time employees was £586 in April 2020, up 0.1% on a year earlier; pay fell in the private sector (negative 0.6%) but not in the public sector (positive 2.4%), following four years of higher pay growth in the private sector; this fall reflects the different job types across each sector and the extent they have been impacted because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Across all jobs, median weekly earnings in April remained unchanged from a year earlier on a nominal basis; when adjusted for inflation, they fell 0.9% in real terms over the year.

Read this statistical bulletin

More publications

UK economy latest

A roundup of the latest data and analysis on the UK economy, business and jobs following Brexit and during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Time series related to Earnings and working hours

AWE: Whole Economy Year on Year Three Month Average Growth (%): Seasonally Adjusted Total Pay Excluding Arrears

Year on year 3 months average

8.3 % 2021 JUL

Release date:

14 September 2021

Next release:

12 October 2021
AWE: Whole Economy Level (£): Seasonally Adjusted Total Pay Excluding Arrears

£ 578 2021 JUL

Release date:

14 September 2021

Next release:

12 October 2021
AWE: Whole Economy Year on Year Three Month Average Growth (%): Seasonally Adjusted Regular Pay Excluding Arrears

Year on year 3 months average

6.8 % 2021 JUL

Release date:

14 September 2021

Next release:

12 October 2021
AWE: Whole Economy Level (£): Seasonally Adjusted Regular Pay Excluding Arrears

£ 542 2021 JUL

Release date:

14 September 2021

Next release:

12 October 2021
Average actual weekly hours of work for full-time workers (seasonally adjusted)

35.7 hours 2021 MAY-JUL

Release date:

14 September 2021

Next release:

12 October 2021

View all time series related to Earnings and working hours Back to top

Datasets related to Earnings and working hours

EARN01: Average weekly earnings

Average Weekly Earnings (AWE), seasonally adjusted. This spreadsheet includes the headline estimates of earnings growth based on the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey.
Average weekly earnings time series

This dataset contains series for Average Weekly Earnings (AWE).
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings time series of selected estimates

Selected annual estimates of earnings and paid hours worked by UK employees using ASHE data from 1997 to 2020.
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) - Guide to tables

Guide to ASHE results tables.
Gender pay gap

Annual gender pay gap estimates for UK employees by age, occupation, industry, full-time and part-time, region and other geographies, and public and private sector. Compiled from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
Index of Labour Costs per Hour, seasonally adjusted

Index of Labour Costs per Hour (ILCH) values and yearly and quarterly growth for industries and sectors, seasonally adjusted, UK.

View all datasets related to Earnings and working hours Back to top

Publications related to Earnings and working hours

Statistical bulletins

Employee earnings in the UK: 2020

Measures of employee earnings, using data from the Annual Survey for Hours and Earnings (ASHE).
Gender pay gap in the UK: 2020

Differences in pay between women and men by age, region, full-time and part-time, and occupation.
Low and high pay in the UK: 2020

The distribution of hourly earnings of high-paid and low-paid jobs and jobs paid below the National Minimum Wage.
Index of Labour Costs per Hour, UK: July to September 2020

Changes in the costs of employing labour, analysed by sector and industry. Experimental Statistics.
Average weekly earnings in Great Britain: September 2021

Estimates of growth in earnings for employees before tax and other deductions from pay.
Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK: September 2021

Experimental monthly estimates of payrolled employees and their pay from HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data. This is a joint release between HMRC and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

View all related statistical bulletins

Articles

Coronavirus (COVID-19) roundup

Catch up on the latest data and analysis related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its impact on our economy and society.
National Living Wage earners fall short of average family spending

The National Living Wage is about to go up to £7.83 per hour – but how easy is it to live on? Our calculator lets you find out how affordable your lifestyle would be if you earned the National Living Wage.
London had the smallest gender pay gap 20 years ago, but now it has the largest

The pay gap between men and women working in London has barely changed in over two decades, new ONS analysis shows.
How do the jobs men and women do affect the gender pay gap?

Women are more likely than men to work in low-paid sectors, but even in roles dominated by women they often earn less.
New methods for monthly earnings and employment estimates from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) data

An article explaining the methods used to derive monthly employee and earnings estimates from Pay as You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI) administrative data. The article also includes comparisons with ONS’s official sources of Labour Market data.

Earnings and working hours

Spotlight