Annual estimates of paid hours worked, weekly, hourly and annual earnings for UK employees by sex, and full-time and part-time, by region and four-digit Standard Occupational Classification.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is one of the largest surveys of the earnings of individuals in the UK. Data on the wages, paid hours of work, and pensions arrangements of nearly one per cent of the working population are collected. Other variables relating to age, occupation and industrial classification are also available. The ASHE sample is drawn from National Insurance records for working individuals, and the survey forms are sent to their respective employers to complete.

While limited in terms of personal characteristics compared to surveys such as the Labour Force Survey, the ASHE is useful not only because of its larger sample size, but also the responses regarding wages and hours are considered to be more accurate, since the responses are provided by employers rather than from employees themselves. A further advantage of the ASHE is that data for the same individuals are collected year after year. It is therefore possible to construct a panel dataset of responses for each individual running back as far as 1997, and to track how occupations, earnings and working hours change for individuals over time. Furthermore, using the unique business identifiers, it is possible to combine ASHE data with data from other business surveys, such as the Annual Business Survey (UK Data Archive SN 7451).

The ASHE replaced the New Earnings Survey (NES, SN 6704) in 2004. NES was developed in the 1970s in response to the policy needs of the time. The survey had changed very little in its thirty-year history. ASHE datasets for the years 1997-2003 were derived using ASHE methodologies applied to NES data.

The ASHE improves on the NES in the following ways:

• the NES questionnaire allowed too much variation in employer responses, leading to wide variations in the data
• weightings have been introduced to take account of the population size (significant biases were a known problem in NES data)
• the significant numbers of employees who change jobs between the sample selection and survey reference dates are retained in the ASHE sample, whereas these were dropped from the NES

Linking to other business studies
These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

Observations from Northern Ireland
The ASHE data held by the UK Data Archive include very few observations from Northern Ireland. Users requiring access to Northern Ireland data are advised to contact the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, who administer this aspect of the survey.

Local unit reference variable, luref
The local unit reference variable 'luref', is generated to indicate multiple occurrences of the same local unit for disclosure checking purposes. It is inconsistent across years and is not an IDBR reference number. It should not be used to link ASHE with other business datasets.

For Secure Lab projects applying for access to this study as well as to SN 6697 Business Structure Database and/or SN 7683 Business Structure Database Longitudinal, only postcode-free versions of the data will be made available.

Latest Edition Information
For the twenty-sixth edition (February 2025), the data file 'ashegb_2023r_2024p_pc' has been added, along with the accompanying data dictionary.

Main Topics:

The ASHE contains a small number of variables for each individual, relating to wages, hours of work, pension arrangements, and occupation and industrial classifications. There are also variables for age, gender and full/part-time status. Because the data are collected by the employer, there are also variables relating to the organisation employing the individual. These include employment size and legal status (e.g. public company). Various geography variables are included in the data files.

Annual estimates of paid hours worked and earnings for UK employees by sex, and full-time and part-time, by two-digit Standard Industrial Classification 2007.

Annual estimates of paid hours worked and earnings for UK employees by sex, and full-time and part-time, by public and private sector, and non-profit bodies and mutual associations.

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. It provides information about the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours paid for employees by gender and full-time/part-time working. Estimates are available for various breakdowns including industries, occupations, geographies and age-groups within the UK. ASHE is used to produce hours and earnings statistics for a range of weekly, annual and hourly measures. ASHE is the official source of estimates for the number of jobs paid below the national minimum wage. ASHE is also used to produce estimates of the proportions of jobs within workplace pension categories. ASHE is based on a one per cent sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) PAYE records. Information on earnings and hours is obtained from employers and treated confidentially. ASHE does not cover the self-employed nor does it cover employees not paid during the reference period. The datasets used for the 2011 datasets are the Revised datasets and are published a year after the provisional. The dataset is split into several different categories including all employees, all male employees and all female employees. Datasets are further categorised by mode of working i.e. Full or Part Time. Full datasets are avaiable from The Office for National Statistics. 2014-06-13T14:25 Licence: None

Annual estimates of paid hours worked and earnings for UK employees by sex, and full-time and part-time, by region and two-digit Standard Industrial Classification 2007.

The ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) provides data on average levels and the distribution of earnings and hours worked for UK employees by detailed occupation (1- to 4-digit SOC categories), and industry sector (1- and 2-digit SIC category) annually. Data is available from the ONS website at regional level.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2020: Synthetic Data Pilot is a synthetic version of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) study available via Trusted Research Environments (TREs).

ASHE is one of the most extensive surveys of the earnings of individuals in the UK. Data on the wages, paid hours of work, and pensions arrangements of nearly one per cent of the working population are collected. Other variables relating to age, occupation and industrial classification are also available. The ASHE sample is drawn from National Insurance records for working individuals, and the survey forms are sent to their respective employers to complete. ASHE is available for research projects demonstrating public good to accredited or approved researchers via TREs such as the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service (SRS) or the UK Data Service Secure Lab (at SN 6689). To access collections stored within TREs, researchers need to undergo an accreditation process.

Gaining access to data in a secure environment can be time and resource intensive. This pilot has created a low fidelity, low disclosure risk synthetic version of ASHE data, which can be made available to researchers more quickly while they wait for access to the real data.

The synthetic data were created using the Synthpop package in R. The sample method was used; this takes a simple random sample with replacement from the real values. The project was carried out in the period between 19th December 2022 and 3rd January 2023. Further information is available within the documentation.

User feedback received through this pilot will help the ONS to maximise benefits of data access and further explore the feasibility of synthesising more data in future.

Main Topics:

The ASHE synthetic data contain the same variables as ASHE for each individual, relating to wages, hours of work, pension arrangements, and occupation and industrial classifications. There are also variables for age, gender and full/part-time status. Because ASHE data are collected by the employer, there are also variables relating to the organisation employing the individual. These include employment size and legal status (e.g. public company). Various geography variables are included in the data files. The year variable in this synthetic dataset is 2020.

These figures show the median gross annual pay for full-time workers on a workplace basis for the area, who are on adults rates of pay, and whose pay was not affected by absence. Figures are for GB pounds per annum. Full-time workers are defined as those who work more than 30 paid hours per week or those in teaching professions working 25 paid hours or more per week. Figures for earnings come from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) which is based on a 1 per cent sample of employees, information on whose earnings and hours is obtained from employers. The survey does not cover people who are self-employed, nor does it cover employees not paid during the reference period. Information relates to a pay period in April. The earnings information collected relates to gross pay before tax, national insurance or other deductions, and excludes payments in kind (i.e. payment made in the form of goods and services rather than cash). It is restricted to earnings relating to the survey pay period and so excludes payments of arrears from another period made during the survey period; any payments due as a result of a pay settlement but not yet paid at the time of the survey will also be excluded. Estimates for 2011 and subsequent years use a weighting scheme based on occupations which have been coded according to Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2010 that replaced SOC 2000. Therefore care should be taken when making comparisons with earlier years. Where the estimate is assessed with a coefficient of variation (CV) of over 20 per cent, these figures have been suppressed, as they are considered by the ONS as unreliable.Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

Annual estimates of paid hours worked and earnings for UK employees by sex, and full-time and part-time, by work-based region to local and unitary authority level.

Extract of data taken from ASHE Table 10.1a showing Weekly gross pay (£) for PART TIME FEMALE employee jobs in the United Kingdom, on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay-period was not affected by absence. The extract shows data for Glasgow Parliamentary Consituencies as well as figures for the United Kingdom, Scotland, and the Highest and Lowest median pay constituencies in the United Kingdom and Great Britain for comparison purposes. Full datasets are avaiable from Office for National Statistics at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/ashe/annual-survey-of-hours-and-earnings/index.html. 2014-06-05T16:25

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) data from the ONS. This covers employee jobs in the 2017-18 financial year, and was released on 25th October 2018.

Data on types of workplace pension arrangements for UK employees by age, industry, public/private sector, occupation and size of company.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: ASHE Pension Tables

Selected annual estimates of earnings and paid hours worked by UK employees using ASHE data from 1997 to 2023

Annual estimates of paid hours worked and earnings for UK employees by sex, and full-time and part-time, by age group and two-digit Standard Occupational Classification 2010. Hourly and weekly estimates are provided for the pay period that included a specified date in April. They relate to employees on adult rates of pay, whose earnings for the survey pay period were not affected by absence. Estimates for 2020 and 2021 include employees who have been furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). Annual estimates are provided for the tax year that ended on 5th April in the reference year. They relate to employees on adult rates of pay who have been in the same job for more than a year.

Annual estimates of paid hours worked and earnings for UK employees by sex, and full-time and part-time, by work-based travel to work area.

New Earnings Survey (NES) and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) percentile and median time series by full-time employees, full-time males and full-time females.

Estimates of paid hours worked, weekly, hourly and annual earnings for the highest paid (90 to 99 percentiles) employee jobs in the UK, by public and private sectors.