Low And High Pay In The UK - 2023

2nd November 2023

The distribution of hourly earnings of high-paid and low-paid jobs and jobs paid below the National Minimum Wage.

The proportion of low-paid employee jobs (based on hourly pay) fell to 8.9% in 2023 from 10.7% in 2022, the lowest since the series began in 1997, with the proportion of high-paid employee jobs falling 0.4 percentage points on-the-year to 23.4% in 2023.

Average hourly pay in 2023 has increased for all percentiles year-on-year, but there is a larger increase in the lower deciles.

The lowest-earning employees tend to be 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 366,000 (1.3%) employee jobs.

Living Wage
Low and high pay data
Glossary
Measuring the data
Strengths and limitations
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1.Other pages in this release
Commentary on topics covered in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is split between three separate bulletins. The other two can be found on the following pages:

Employee earnings in the UK: 2023

Gender pay gap in the UK: 2023

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2.Main points: April 2023
The proportion of low-paid employee jobs (based on hourly pay) fell to 8.9% in 2023 from 10.7% in 2022, the lowest since the series began in 1997, with the proportion of high-paid employee jobs falling 0.4 percentage points on-the-year to 23.4% in 2023.

Average hourly pay in 2023 has increased for all percentiles year-on-year, but there is a larger increase in the lower deciles.

The lowest-earning employees tend to be 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 366,000 (1.3%) employee jobs.

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3.Low- and high-paid employee jobs
The Annual Survey for Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is based on employer responses for a 1% sample of employee jobs, using HM Revenue and Customs Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records to identify individuals' current employer. Throughout this bulletin, the terms "jobs" and "employees" are used interchangeably.

Figure 1: The proportion of low-paid employee jobs for hourly pay fell to record lows of 8.9% and the proportion of high-paid employee jobs fell to 23.4% in 2023
Proportion of high- and low-paid employee jobs for hourly pay and gross weekly pay, whole economy, UK, 1997 to 2023
Low-paid jobs (hourly)High-paid jobs (hourly)Low-paid jobs (weekly)High-paid jobs (weekly)20232021201920172015201320112009200720052003200119991997010203040%
2022
● Low-paid jobs (hourly): 10.7
● High-paid jobs (hourly): 23.8
● Low-paid jobs (weekly): 24.7
● High-paid jobs (weekly): 24.0
Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings from the Office for National Statistics
Notes:
Estimates for 2023 data are provisional.

Employees are on adult rates, pay is unaffected by absence.

Full-time is defined as employees working more than 30 paid hours per week (or 25 or more for the teaching professions).

Low pay is defined as the value that is two-thirds of median hourly earnings and high pay is defined as the value that is 1.5 times median hourly earnings.

Data for 2020 and 2021 are subject to more uncertainty and should be treated with caution because of the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the data and collection.

Download this chartFigure 1: The proportion of low-paid employee jobs for hourly pay fell to record lows of 8.9% and the proportion of high-paid employee jobs fell to 23.4% in 2023
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In 2023, 8.9% of all employee jobs were low paid (were paid less than two-thirds of median hourly pay), when considered in terms of hourly earnings.

This was the lowest proportion of low-paid employee jobs by hourly pay since the data series began in 1997, which coincides with recent increases in the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) rates. This also coincides with the additional increase in the NMW for those aged 23 and 24 years, who joined those aged 25 years and over in receiving the NLW in 2021. The proportion of high-paid employee jobs based on hourly pay fell to 23.4% in 2023.

High-paid employee jobs (those earning more than 1.5 times the median) for hourly and weekly pay have decreased by 0.4 and 0.9 percentage points, respectively since 2022, averaging approximately just under a quarter of all employee jobs across both the hourly and weekly pay series.

Our definitions of low and high pay are based on those used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in which low pay is defined as below two-thirds of median hourly earnings and high pay is defined as more than 1.5 times median hourly earnings. See Section 8: Glossary for details. In 2023, low pay is defined as those earning below £10.59 per hour and high pay is defined as those earning more than £23.82 per hour.

Read the full report HERE