Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 17 February 2011.
holding answer
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated February 2011:
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the average gap between the earnings per hour of a full-time (a) female and (b) male worker was in (i) 1980, (ii) 1990, (iii) 2000 and (iv) 2010. (40800).
Average levels of earnings are estimated from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and prior to 1997 from the New Earnings Survey (NES). They are carried out in April each year and are the most comprehensive source of earnings information. The coverage of the survey was extended in ASHE from Great Britain to United Kingdom.
ONS's headline estimates of gender pay differences are based on median hourly earnings excluding overtime, but this measure is not available prior to 1997. Prior to 1997, estimates are only available for mean hourly earnings (excluding overtime) of full-time employees in Great Britain. Therefore, in order to achieve continuity of the earnings estimates used over the time period requested, mean hourly earnings (excluding overtime) in Great Britain has been used to answer this question.
I therefore attach a table showing the gender pay gap in (i) 1980, (ii) 1990, (iii) 2000 and (iv) 2010 for mean hourly earnings excluding overtime for all full-time male and female employees on adult rates of pay, whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence, in Great Britain.
Mean hourly pay excluding overtime earnings-gender pay gap for full-time employee jobs( 1) : April 1980,1990, 2000 and 2010 in Great Britain | |||
All full-time male (£) | All full-time female (£) | Gender pay gap (percentage) | |
1980 | 2.88 | 2.06 | 28.5 |
1990 | 6.89 | 5.27 | 23.5 |
2000 | 11.58 | 9.22 | 20.4 |
2010 | 16.34 | 13.77 | 15.7 |
(1) Employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay-period was not affected by absence. Source: 1980 and 1990, New Earnings Survey (NES), Office for National Statistics. 2000 and 2001, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Office for National Statistics. |
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