In April 2016 median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were £539, up 2.2% from £527 in 2015. The 2.2% growth seen this year is the joint highest growth in earnings seen since the economic downturn in 2008 (matching that seen in 2013).
Adjusted for inflation, weekly earnings increased by 1.9% compared with 2015. This repeats the trend seen in 2015, which exhibited the first increase since 2008, and is due to a combination of growth in average earnings and a low level of inflation at that time.
Weekly earnings grew by 2.2% for full-time workers compared with 6.6% for part-time workers.
The bottom of the distribution has grown fastest this year, with the fifth percentile growing by 6.2% and the 95th percentile growing by 2.5%.
In April 2016 the gender pay gap (for median hourly earnings) for full-time employees decreased to 9.4%, from 9.6% in 2015. This is the lowest since the survey began in 1997, although the gap has changed relatively little over the last six years.
Median weekly earnings for full-time employees in the private sector were £517 (up 3.4% on 2015) compared with £594 (up 0.7%) for the public sector. While private sector median earnings have been around 85% of public sector earnings between 2010 and 2015, the proportion has risen to 87% this year.
ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings: 2016 provisional results
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