The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 16 October 2007:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many employees have income in excess of £50,000 per year; and what percentage of total employed workforce that figure represents. (157392)
The information requested is not available in respect of income, but the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) can be used to provide a partial answer for UK earnings. ASHE is earned out in April each year and is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. It is a one per cent. sample of all employees who are members of pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) schemes.
ASHE is not used to provide estimates of the numbers of employees whose earnings is greater than a specific amount, but is used to provide estimates of proportions of the workforce in that category. I attach a table showing an estimate of the percentage of the UK workforce which earned greater than £50,000 per year, from the 2006 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
UK 2006 Percentage Full-time 8.3 Part-time 0.5 All jobs 6.3 1 Employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay-period was not affected by absence. Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics.