Average hourly pay
Published
1. Main facts and figures
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in 2021, the average hourly pay for all employees was £13.57
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employees from the white Irish ethnic group had the highest average hourly pay out of all ethnic groups (£18.14)
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employees from the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest (£12.03)
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the average hourly pay for white employees was £13.51
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in 2020 and 2021, employees from the white Irish group had the highest hourly pay – from 2013 to 2019 employees from the Indian ethnic group had the highest
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employees from the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest hourly pay every year from 2013 to 2021
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between 2020 and 2021, the average hourly pay for all employees went up from £13.00 to £13.57 – an increase of 4.4%
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data shows the average (median) hourly pay for all employees aged 16 and over in the UK. The data is based on gross income before tax and other deductions.
Figures have been rounded to the nearest pence. Some totals may not add up because of rounding.
Not included in the data
The data does not include:
- earnings of more than £100 per hour – high values are not very common, so excluding them allows the survey to give more accurate estimates
- sample sizes of less than 30 – this is to protect people’s confidentiality and because the numbers are too small to make any reliable generalisations
The ethnic groups used in the data
The data uses the ethnic categories from the 2011 Census.
Data is aggregated for each of the black, mixed and other ethnic groups, which means estimates are shown for these groups as a whole. Data is shown separately for white British and all other white people (‘white other’ ethnic group). Separate estimates are shown for 3 Asian ethnic groups (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi, and Asian other).
Ethnicity was not known for 0.05% of respondents in 2019. Data for people whose ethnicity was unknown is included in the averages for all ethnic groups ('All' in charts and tables).
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document for the data on this page.
Employees give their hourly pay as part of the Annual Population Survey (APS). This is less precise than asking their employers for their payroll records. The figures are not adjusted for inflation. As a result, the APS is known to underestimate pay rates, but it is used here because other sources do not collect people’s ethnicity (for example, data on earnings and working hours).
This analysis uses the median average, which is the middle point of a range of numbers arranged in order. Find out more about differences between the mean and median.
The figures on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about:
- interpreting survey data, including how reliability is affected by the number of people surveyed
- how weighting is used to make survey data more representative of the whole group being studied
National-level figures may differ from those published by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics that use the Labour Force Survey.
In the data file
See Download the data for the number of people who completed the survey, adjusted to represent the whole population (labelled ‘Weighted denominator’ in the data file).
3. By ethnicity over time
| Ethnicity | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| All | 10.54 | 10.69 | 10.82 | 11.02 | 11.41 | 11.82 | 12.17 | 13.00 | 13.57 |
| Asian | 10.07 | 9.82 | 10.16 | 11.00 | 11.14 | 11.80 | 12.32 | 13.69 | 14.29 |
| Black | 10.27 | 10.00 | 9.91 | 10.27 | 10.78 | 10.80 | 11.54 | 12.16 | 12.55 |
| Indian | 11.55 | 12.03 | 11.75 | 12.50 | 12.76 | 13.46 | 14.43 | 15.59 | 16.11 |
| Mixed | 11.00 | 10.41 | 10.71 | 11.26 | 10.71 | 12.16 | 12.30 | 13.28 | 13.57 |
| Other Asian | 10.17 | 9.27 | 9.76 | 10.63 | 11.06 | 12.50 | 12.03 | 13.74 | 14.07 |
| Other | 9.69 | 9.80 | 10.02 | 10.17 | 10.58 | 10.95 | 11.39 | 13.85 | 15.04 |
| Pakistani/ Bangladeshi | 8.13 | 7.89 | 9.11 | 9.36 | 9.45 | 9.62 | 10.55 | 11.05 | 12.03 |
| White | 10.58 | 10.81 | 10.91 | 11.05 | 11.46 | 11.87 | 12.21 | 13.00 | 13.51 |
| White British | 10.60 | 10.83 | 10.95 | 11.13 | 11.53 | 11.90 | 12.25 | 12.92 | 13.46 |
| White Irish | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | N/A* | 18.69 | 18.14 |
| White Other | 10.13 | 10.55 | 10.29 | 10.38 | 10.74 | 11.55 | 12.02 | 13.66 | 14.03 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV)
Summary of Average hourly pay By ethnicity over time Summary
The data shows that:
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in 2021, the average hourly pay for all employees was £13.57 – it was £13.00 in 2020, and £10.54 in 2013
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employees from the white Irish ethnic group had the highest hourly pay out of all ethnic groups in 2021 (£18.14)
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employees from the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest (£12.03)
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in 2020 and 2021, employees from the white Irish group had the highest hourly pay out of all ethnic groups – data for this ethnic group only became available in 2020
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in every year between 2013 and 2019, employees from the Indian ethnic group had the highest average hourly pay
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employees from the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest hourly pay each year from 2013 to 2021 – they also had the biggest percentage increase (8.9%) between 2020 and 2021, from £11.05 to £12.03
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from 2020 to 2021, the smallest increase in average hourly pay was in the mixed ethnic group – from £13.28 to £13.57
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the only decrease in average hourly pay between 2020 and 2021 was in the white Irish ethnic group – from £18.69 to £18.14
4. Data sources
Source
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Office for National Statistics
Note on corrections or updates
Higher-level figures may differ from those published by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics that use the Labour Force Survey.
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The Annual Population Survey (APS) is the largest ongoing household survey in the UK and covers a range of topics, including:
- personal characteristics
- labour market status
- work characteristics
- education
- health
The purpose of the APS is to provide information on important social and socio-economic variables at local levels, such as labour market estimates.
The published statistics also allow the government to monitor estimates on a range of issues between censuses.
5. Download the data
This file contains the following variables: Measure, Time, Time_type, Ethnicity, Value, Value_type, Weighted denominator