Low Pay methodology and guidance

About this article

ASHE provides information about the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours paid for employee jobs within all industries, occupations and regions in the UK.

ASHE was developed to replace the New Earnings Survey (NES) in 2004. This included improvements to the coverage of employee jobs and imputation and weighting to account for non-response.

ASHE provides estimates for employee earnings by sex and full-time/part-time workers.

Breakdowns are also available by geographies, industrial classifications, occupational classifications and age groups, as well as various combinations of these.

These breakdowns are available for the following variables: gross weekly pay, weekly pay excluding overtime, basic pay including other pay, overtime pay, gross hourly pay, hourly pay excluding overtime, gross annual pay, annual incentive pay, total paid hours, basic paid hours and paid overtime hours.

ASHE is also used to produce estimates of the proportions of UK employee jobs within workplace pension categories. From 2005 estimates of the proportions of employee jobs within pension contribution rate bands are also available.

ASHE is the official source of estimates for the number of employee jobs paid below the National Minimum Wage.

Additional guidance and advice may be obtained from earnings@ons.gov.uk.