FOI ref: FOI-2023-1382
You asked
Please can you provide me with the following information in LSD (pounds, shillings and pence) or Pounds and Pence. The average weekly earnings as at: • April 1968 • April 1974 • April 2000 • April 2023
We said
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request regarding average weekly earnings for April 1968, April 1974, April 2000 and April 2023.
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. Consequently, individuals with more than one job may appear in the sample more than once. ASHE does not cover the self-employed or employees not paid during the reference period. ASHE information relates to gross pay before tax, National Insurance or other deductions, and excludes payments in kind.
A timeseries with median weekly earnings has been published, with data from 1968-2022 for Great Britain, accessible via the following link: Earnings timeseries of median gross weekly earnings from 1968 to 2022. This release contains data from both the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and the New Earnings Survey; the New Earnings Survey is the predecessor to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Please note, there may be certain methodological differences when measuring the earnings of employees and, as such, certain points may not be directly comparable.
Median earnings (the 50th percentile), which is the ONS's preferred measure of average earnings, can be found in the column labelled "50%".
2023 ASHE data will be released in the future and, as such, is exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. As a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.