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Written question asked by Chris Ruane (Labour) on Wednesday, 21 February 2018, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 26 February 2018 (named day). It was answered by Elizabeth Truss (Conservative) on Monday, 26 February 2018 on behalf of the Treasury.

Pay Systems

Question

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the proportion of total workers' pay comprised of a (a) fixed pay rate and (b) variable pay rate or performance awards in each of the last 11 years.

Answer

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish data on the components of mean full-time gross weekly earnings, which include basic pay, overtime pay, incentive pay and shift premium pay. This is provided in the table below for the period 2007 to 2017. Further information on the definitions of the components of pay can be found at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/methodologies/guidetointerpretingannualsurveyofhoursandearningsasheestimates#what-do-the-different-components-of-pay-mean

Year

Overtime pay

Incentive pay

Shift premium pay

Basic pay

2007

3.4%

1.7%

1.1%

93.8%

2008

3.4%

1.9%

1.1%

93.6%

2009

2.8%

1.4%

1.0%

94.8%

2010

2.9%

1.5%

1.0%

94.5%

2011

2.7%

2.7%

1.4%

1.4%

1.0%

1.0%

94.8%

94.8%

2012

2.7%

1.3%

1.1%

94.9%

2013

2.7%

1.3%

1.1%

94.9%

2014

2.7%

1.2%

1.0%

95.1%

2015

2.6%

1.1%

1.0%

95.3%

2016

2.5%

1.1%

1.0%

95.3%

2017

2.5%

1.2%

1.0%

95.3%

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) – Office for National Statistics

Note:

  1. Employees on adult rates, pay unaffected by absence

  2. Full-time defined as employees working more than 30 paid hours per work (or 25 or more for the teaching professions)

  3. There is a discontinuity in the dataset resulting from changes to the ASHE methodology – in 2011 the Standard Occupational Classification 2010 replaced the Standard Occupational Classification 2000.

  4. 2017 data is provisional

  5. Values are rounded to 1 decimal place

  6. There are known coverage issues with data on bonus and incentive payments, as the information is often not available to the respondents at the time they provide the information.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
128944
Session
2017-19
Subjects
Pay systems
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk