WIREDGOV

The gender pay gap fell to 9.6% in April 2012, according to new figures from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) published yesterday.

The gender pay gap – which is the difference between men’s and women’s median hourly pay excluding overtime for full-time employees – stood at 10.5% in 2011. This year’s fall continues a general downward trend in the pay gap in recent years. For part-timers, the pay gap remains negative, meaning women are better paid than men. Here the gap widened slightly, at -5.2% in 2012 compared with -5.1% in 2011. Looking at all employees, the gender pay gap is bigger than for full-timers but has again fallen between 2011 and 2012 (19.7% in 2012, down from 20.2% in 2011). This is affected by the higher proportion of women than men who work part-time, as part-timers tend to have lower hourly rates.

Other data in ASHE show that median gross weekly earnings for full-timers, at £506, were up by 1.5% on the 2011 figure of £498. Public sector workers saw a rise of 1.6% (from £556 in 2011 to £565 this year) while in the private sector the increase was 1.5% (£472 a week in 2011, £479 in 2012).

There was a narrowing in the gap between the highest and lowest paid employees: between 2011 and 2012, the hourly earnings excluding overtime of full-timers at the top decile point fell by 0.2%, whereas those at the bottom decile point saw an increase of 2.3%.

The region where employees had the highest median gross weekly earnings was London, at £653, and the region with the lowest earnings was Wales at £453. The district with the highest-paying jobs was the City of London (a median of £917 a week full-time) and the district with the lowest-paid jobs was Torridge (£348 a week full-time).

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