The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 28 March 2007:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about the pay gap, as represented by average hourly earnings, between men and certain other groups of employees. (129909)
In your earlier question, Official Report Volume 458, column 406, to which you refer, you requested a time series of data from 1997. I pointed out that while the data was available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), it could only be provided at a disproportionate cost. I have therefore only provided data for 2006.
The attached table gives a breakdown of the average hourly earnings of employees of working age, and the percentage pay gap between all male employees and employees who are either women with dependent children, people from ethnic minorities, workers with disabilities, and employees for each of the main qualification groups.
Average hourly earnings shown are based on the statistical mean. The ONS also publishes information for both the mean and median hourly earnings in table 38 of the LFS Historical Quarterly Supplement, which can be found at:
http://www. statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_labour/LFSHQS/Table38.xls.
The results shown are not comparable to those provided in the earlier reply as that information was provided from the Annual Survey of Hourly Earnings (ASHE). The estimates relate to the three months ending June 2006. These estimates have not been seasonally adjusted.
Estimates are taken from the LFS. As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
£ and percentage Three months ending June 2006 Mean gross hourly earnings (£) Pay gap2 (percentage) All employees3 11.12 — Men 12.38 — Women 9.81 — Women with dependent children 10.06 18.7 Ethnic minority groups 10.70 13.6 Disabled4 10.27 17.0 Highest qualification Degree or equivalent 16.73 -35.1 Higher education below degree level 12.60 -1.8 GCE A Level or equivalent 10.11 18.3 GCSE grades A-C or equivalent 8.70 29.7 Other qualifications 8.39 32.2 No qualifications 7.24 41.5 Don’t know 8.46 1.7 1 16 to 64 for men and 16-59 for women. 2 The percentage difference between the relevant hourly pay for all persons in each group, and that of male employees (£12.38). 3 Includes both full-time and part-time employees. 4 Includes those who have a long term disability. Note: Gross hourly earnings data are known to be underestimated in the LFS. This is principally because of proxy responses. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS)