Average incomes rising much less than inflation
The median salary for a full-time worker in the UK rose 1.4% in 2011 to £26,244, against a headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate of 5% or higher, according to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings from the Office for National Statistics.
Overall earnings growth was even lower, with the average UK salary increasing just 0.5% on 2010 levels once part-time workers are included.
This was driven by a shift to part-time work as a result of high unemployment and low economic growth: the indicative figures for 2011 included 380,000 fewer full-time workers than a year before, with 72,000 more part-time employees.
Progress in closing the gender pay gap has also slowed, with women in full-time employment earning on average £5,409 less than men - the gap narrowed by £179 in 2010 compared with £558 in 2009.
The headline figures also masked sizeable falls in pay for some of the UK's lowest-earning professions - and sizeable salary boosts for senior managers and directors.
Workers in "elementary occupations", a classification including labourers, farm workers, postal workers and others, saw their typical pay fall 0.9% against its 2010 level, while professional pay rose 1% and managerial salaries rose 0.5%.
Directors and chief executives of leading organisations enjoyed the most sizeable pay rises, with median earnings up 15% to £112,157. Salaries of senior corporate managers also increased substantially - up 7.1% year-on-year to £77,679.
By contrast, the annual pay of waiters and waitresses (mostly part-time workers) fell 11.2% year-on-year to £5,660 - the most substantial drop of any group of workers. Cleaning staff earnings fell 3.4%.
The amount of pay needed to be in the top 10% of full-time earners increased by 1.9% since 2010, to £52,643; while the threshold for the bottom 10% of full-time workers increased 0.6%, to £14,905.
Read the findings of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings from the Office for National Statistics.
Find out more about income inequality in London.
Find out more about income poverty in London.
Find out more about low pay in London.
Posted on 24 November 2011
Further pages
- 1.6 million children in fuel poverty
- 100k more low-paid jobs in London
- The first Living Wage Week
- Fears that Food Banks may replace Social Fund
- London's population exceeds 8 million
- New London poverty data available
- Charities warn of 1m vulnerable families
- 43% annual rise in London's rough sleeping
- Childcare is 'mission impossible'
- London pupils beat national average at 11, 16 & 19
- Work Foundation warning on long-term youth unemployed
- Lone parents hit by welfare reform
- Housing Benefit claimants increase in London
- London's pay gap 50% wider than national average
- Number of families in B&Bs triples
- 73% rise in rough sleeping
- Mayoral manifesto calls for action on child poverty
- Is London more unequal but less segregated?
- Poverty moving from inner to outer London
- Childcare costs rising up to 20 times faster than wages
- Ill health and poverty persist for 114 years
- St Pancras cleaners strike over poor pay
- JSA claims have grown fastest in London
- Supermarket staff 'live in poverty'
- Government and Opposition promise limits on top pay
- Tower Hamlets 'worst area for child poverty in UK'
- "800,000 houses unaffordable under housing benefit changes"
- London's new Housing Strategy out for consultation
- Is fuel poverty worse in London?
- British public attitudes to poverty harden
- Huge fall in building of new affordable homes
- 'High pay at the top corrosive to the British economy'
- Average incomes rising much less than inflation
- Welfare reform risks 133,000 unable to afford rent
- Pay gap grows between top and middle earners
- GLA publishes child poverty update
- Public education spending to fall at fastest rate since 1950s
- FTSE 100 directors' pay up by 50%
- LSE to monitor poverty and inequality under the Coalition
- Is London the hardest region for poor children?
- Housing costs risk piling pressure on Outer London services
- New London's Poverty Profile launched
- Decade of rising poverty predicted
- Government housing policies assessed
- Childcare costs causing debt and poverty
- Pay and rewards risen faster at the top
- Mixed results on employment retention
- '1 in 4 London children overcrowded'
- Public support for tackling pay inequality
- Living costs rising faster for families
- 'Single mothers hit hardest by welfare changes'
- Disabled people 'face additional debt difficulties'
- Will the Work Programme fail the most disadvantaged?
- Incomes grew in 2009-2010 but future looks gloomy
- Poor 'experience worse inflation'
- London's Latin American community low-paid and exploited
- Child Poverty Action Group issues legal challenge to Government
- Women still behind in London's economy
- Government consults on new child poverty approach
- IFS predicts rising poverty
- London's poor hit harder by tax and benefit changes
- New information on rough sleeping
- In-work poverty on the rise in London
- Recession impacts most on East and Outer London
- New data available on London's debt
- New report on lifting families out of poverty
- London's public sector exhibits lower standards of living
- Public funding cuts hit the poorest hardest
- City Parochial becomes Trust for London
- VAT rise will hit the poor hardest
- Mayor announces increase in Living Wage
- London the 'most unequal city in the West', says academic
- New National Minimum Wage rates announced
- 'Worklessness costs London £5bn a year'
- Bus fare rise hits low-paid Londoners
- London's children in deepest poverty
- JRF launches housing and neighbourhood website
- Poverty in Hammersmith
- Focus on London 2009 published
- London Child Poverty Awards
- Recession poverty risk for BME Women
- Government reviews impact of recession
- Londoners face debt crisis
- Child poverty duty to become law
- London Living Wage increases
- London's Poverty Profile welcomed
- London's Poverty Profile launched
- New research about Latin American community in London
- Income inequality hit record high before the recession started
- London's economic environment remains harsh, says GLA
- Government will miss 2010 child poverty target
- Unemployment up across all London boroughs