Low And High Pay In The UK 2022

29th October 2022

Over the coronavirus pandemic period, earnings estimates were affected by changes in composition of the workforce and the impact of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (furlough) making interpretation difficult; also data collection disruption and lower response rates mean that, for 2020 and 2021, data were subject to more uncertainty and should be treated with caution; we would encourage users to focus on long-term trends rather than year-on-year changes.

The proportion of low-paid employee jobs (based on hourly pay) fell to 10.5% in 2022 from 14.3% in 2021, the lowest since the series began in 1997, with the proportion of high-paid employee jobs falling 0.7 percentage points on-the-year to 23.7% in 2022.

Average hourly pay in 2022 for full-time employees has increased for all percentiles year-on-year, but there is a larger increase in the lower deciles; part-time jobs at the fifth percentile have seen the largest increase in hourly pay.

The lowest-earning employees tend to be part time, younger (aged between 16 and 21 years) and in the elementary occupations or in the hospitality industry.

The highest-earning employees are concentrated in the managerial and professional occupations, aged between 35 and 49 years, or work in the information and communication, and finance and insurance service industries.

The number of jobs paid below the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage is 509,000 (1.7%) employee jobs, returning to similar levels seen in 2019 before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Read the full report HERE