Public Sector: Pay
Cabinet Office
Jim Cunningham (Coventry South, Labour)
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office which public sector occupation in the West Midlands has the greatest level of earnings relative to the local average.
Nick Hurd (Parliamentary Secretary (Civil Society), Cabinet Office; Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, Conservative)
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated April 2012
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking which public sector occupation in the West Midlands has the greatest level of earnings relative to the local average. (106253)
Average levels of earnings are estimated from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and are provided for all employees on adult rates of pay whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence. The ASHE, carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom.
The following table shows the median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees in the West Midlands by broad occupational groups (Standard Occupational Classification 2010 sub-major group) for 2011. Public sector earnings are highest, as a percentage of the local average, in elementary administration and service occupations.
| Median Gross Weekly Earnings (£)—for full-time employee jobs (1) in the West Midlands by occupation for 2011 | ||||
| All employees | Public sector | Absolute difference | Percentage difference | |
| Elementary administration and service occupations | 308.0 | 380.4 | 72.4 | 23.5 |
| Sales occupations | 286.9 | *338.8 | 51.9 | 18.1 |
| Skilled agricultural and related trades | *319.3 | *376.0 | 56.7 | 17.8 |
| Other managers and proprietors | *565.5 | **664.4 | 98.9 | 17.5 |
| Corporate managers and directors | 684.2 | *797.6 | 113.4 | 16.6 |
| Customer service occupations | 360.2 | **419.4 | 59.2 | 16.4 |
| Elementary trades and related occupations | 335.8 | *390.9 | 55.1 | 16.4 |
| Leisure, travel and related personal service occupations | *313.3 | *352.6 | 39.3 | 12.5 |
| Caring personal service occupations | 318.8 | 341.2 | 22.4 | 7.0 |
| Transport and mobile machine drivers and operatives | 424.8 | **450.0 | 25.2 | 5.9 |
| Secretarial and related occupations | 339.8 | *352.7 | 12.9 | 3.8 |
| Administrative occupations | 361.7 | 371.7 | 10.0 | 2.8 |
| Skilled construction and building trades | 455.0 | *464.8 | 9.8 | 2.2 |
| Health professionals | 644.3 | 654.9 | 10.6 | 1.6 |
| Health and social care associate professionals | 469.9 | *477.4 | 7.5 | 1.6 |
| Protective service occupations | 639.5 | 646.9 | 7.3 | 1.1 |
| Skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades | 484.4 | **484.9 | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| Process, plant and machine operatives | 402.2 | **399.9 | -2.3 | -0.6 |
| Teaching and educational professionals | 673.2 | 653.5 | -19.7 | -2.9 |
| Business, media and public service professionals | 624.2 | 596.0 | -28.2 | -4.5 |
| Business and public service associate professionals | 553.9 | 496.9 | -57.0 | -10.3 |
| Science, research, engineering and technology professionals | 669.2 | *575.2 | -94.0 | -14.0 |
| Science, engineering and technology associate professionals | 482.7 | *412.4 | -70.3 | -14.6 |
| Culture, media and sports occupations | *425.3 | x | — | — |
| Textiles, printing and other skilled trades | 345.0 | x | — | — |
| ‘x’ = Unreliable. (1) Employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay-period was not affected by absence. Guide to quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of a figure, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an average of 200 with a CV of 5%, we would expect the population average to be within the range 180 to 220. Key: CV <= 5% * CV > 5% and<= 10% ** CV > 10% and<= 20% Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Office far National Statistics | ||||