UK Median Income

The National Statistics Office has data for median weekly income of individuals in the UK up to 2009 (average wages are higher but of little interest and household income is not considered here). The figures are:

Men £531 = £27612 per annum
Women £426 = £22152 p.a.

Private sector £465 = £24180 p.a.
Public sector £539 = £28028 p.a.

These figures include both full and part time workers.

The discrepancies between male and female incomes look bad but are not so severe when part-time working and years out of the labour market for child rearing are taken into account. Women actually earn more than men in the 22-29 age band so any analysis of the "gender gap" must explain what happens to women between the ages of 29 and 45...

The discrepancies between private and public sectors are a scandal and show that Labour was unable to exercise good management of the Government's part of the economy. Given that the public sector is not a wealth generating part of the economy public sector pay needs to be reduced, especially when pensions are taken into account. Accounting for pensions, the public sector should have a 25% pay decrease, perhaps as a pay freeze for five years, to give the economy a chance of growth.

The argument that decreasing public sector pay will decrease demand in the economy is facile. As in all things there is a balance point and public sector incomes being vastly greater than private sector incomes shows that the balance is tipped too far towards public employment.

What is really irritating about these figures is that the Labour Chancellor, Gordon Brown, repeatedly announced an end to boom and bust but he has allowed a boom in public sector employment as well as booms everywhere that Labour touched. Little wonder that now we have the bust.


It is also interesting to consider the extremes of UK income:

"10 per cent of full-time employees earned more than £971 per week (£50492 p.a.), while 10 per cent earned less than £271 (£14092 p.a.). Between April 2008 and April 2009 the distribution of gross weekly pay narrowed, with a 3.2 per cent increase at the bottom decile, and a 2.1 per cent increase at the top decile."

See

Is Labour any more than the Public Sector party?