Average weekly earnings in Great Britain: March 2019

Commentary on topics covered in the previous Labour market statistics bulletin is now split into four separate bulletins. Other commentary from the latest labour market data can be found on the following pages:

• Labour market overview

• Employment in the UK

• Jobs and vacancies

• Excluding bonuses, average weekly earnings for employees in Great Britain were estimated to have increased by 3.4%, before adjusting for inflation, and by 1.4%, after adjusting for inflation, compared with a year earlier.

• Including bonuses, average weekly earnings for employees in Great Britain were estimated to have increased by 3.4%, before adjusting for inflation, and by 1.5%, after adjusting for inflation, compared with a year earlier.

The earnings estimates are not just a measure of pay rises as they also reflect changes in the number of paid hours worked and changes in the structure of the workforce; for example, more high-paid jobs would have a upward effect on earnings growth rates.

We publish earnings estimates for:

• regular pay (excluding bonuses)

• total pay (including bonuses)

These estimates of regular and total pay are available:

• not adjusted for inflation (nominal)

• adjusted for inflation (real)

Pay in real terms is calculated as nominal average weekly earnings, deflated by the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH).

Between November 2017 to January 2018 and November 2018 to January 2019 for employees in Great Britain:

• regular pay was estimated to have increased by 3.4% in nominal terms and by 1.4% in real terms

• total pay was estimated to have increased by 3.4% in nominal terms and by 1.5% in real terms

For January 2019, average regular pay, before tax and other deductions, for employees in Great Britain was estimated at:

• £497 per week in nominal terms, higher than the estimate for a year earlier (£480 per week)

• £466 per week in real terms (constant 2015 prices), higher than the estimate for a year earlier (£458 per week), but £7 lower than the pre-recession peak of £473 per week for March 2008

For January 2019 average total pay:

• for finance and business services was estimated at £684 per week; this was £154 higher than the whole economy average of £530 per week

• for wholesaling, retailing, hotels and restaurants was estimated at £357 per week, £173 lower than the whole economy average of £530 per week

Between November 2017 to January 2018 and November 2018 to January 2019 average total pay:

• for finance and business services was estimated to have increased by 4.3%, more than the whole economy average of 3.4%

• for wholesaling, retailing, hotels and restaurants was estimated to have increased by 2.4%, less than the whole economy average of 3.4%

Average weekly earnings
Dataset EARN01 | Released 19 March 2019
Headline estimates of earnings growth in Great Britain (seasonally adjusted).

Average weekly earnings by sector
Dataset EARN02 | Released 19 March 2019
Estimates of earnings in Great Britain broken down to show the effects of changes in wages and the effects of changes in the composition of employment (not seasonally adjusted).

Average weekly earnings by industry
Dataset EARN03 | Released 19 March 2019
Estimates earnings in Great Britain broken down by detailed industrial sector (not seasonally adjusted).

Average Weekly Earnings

Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) is the lead monthly measure of average weekly earnings per employee. It is calculated using information based on the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey (MWSS), which samples around 8,500 employers in Great Britain.

The estimates are not just a measure of pay rises as they do not, for example, adjust for changes in the proportion of the workforce who work full-time or part-time, or other compositional changes within the workforce. The estimates do not include earnings of self-employed people.

Estimates are available for both total pay (which includes bonus payments) and for regular pay (which excludes bonuses). Estimates are available in both nominal terms (not adjusted for inflation) and real terms (adjusted for inflation).

Bonus

A bonus is a form of reward or recognition granted by an employer. When an employee receives a bonus payment, there is no expectation or assumption that the bonus will be used to cover any specific expense. The value and timing of a bonus payment can be at the discretion of the employer or stipulated in workplace agreements.

Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey (MWSS)

A survey through which we collect information on wages and salaries. It is distributed monthly to over 8,800 employers covering around 12.8 million employees.

A more detailed Glossary is available.

This bulletin relies on data collected from the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey, a survey of employers in Great Britain excluding small businesses employing fewer than 20 people.

The Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) report pulls together important qualitative information on the various dimensions of data quality, as well as providing a summary of the methods used to compile the output.

The figures in this bulletin come from a survey of businesses, which gathers information from a sample rather than from the whole population. The sample is designed to be as accurate as possible given practical limitations such as time and cost constraints. Results from sample surveys are always estimates, not precise figures. This can have an impact on how changes in the estimates should be interpreted, especially for short-term comparisons.

As the number of people available in the sample gets smaller, the variability of the estimates that we can make from that sample size gets larger. Estimates for small groups (for example, earnings for the construction sector), which are based on quite small subsets of the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey sample, are less reliable and tend to be more volatile than for larger aggregated groups (for example, earnings for the private sector).

In general, short-term changes in the growth rates reported in this bulletin are not usually greater than the level that can be explained by sampling variability. Short-term movements in reported rates should be considered alongside longer-term patterns in the series and corresponding movements in other sources to give a fuller picture.

Further information is available in A guide to labour market statistics and A guide to sources of data on earnings and income.