Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings

Latest results published 1 November 2023

The key points from the 'Employee earnings in NI 2023' show that:

• Median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees in April 2023 increased by 7.4% from £597 in 2022 to £641 in 2023. This year’s annual increase is the second largest on record.
• UK weekly earnings increased by 6.2% to £682 in April 2023, the largest annual increase on record. NI had the second largest increase in earnings across the 12 UK regions over the year and now ranks fifth lowest of the regions, with weekly earnings around £40 below the UK average in 2023.
• In real terms (that is, adjusted for inflation) weekly earnings in NI decreased by 0.3% over the year to April 2023, which is the second consecutive real terms decrease, following the largest annual decrease on record to April 2022 (3.7%). Real weekly earnings in the UK saw a larger decrease over the year (1.5%) than NI.
• Median annual earnings for full-time employees in NI were £32,900 in 2023, lower than the UK median of £35,000. The highest 10% of earners earned at least £59,000.

Publications 

• Employee earnings in NI 2023
• Previous publications

Historical data

1. Headline statistics for Northern Ireland
2. Industry, occupation, age, public/private sector and skill level
3. NI geographies, by place of work and place of residence
4. All tables in Open Document Spreadsheet (ODS) format

Table builder and dashboard

ASHE data is now available on the new NISRA Data Portal, allowing users to build their own bespoke tables.

The 2023 ASHE headline results are summarised in charts and maps in the new ASHE Dashboard.

Data Visualisation

1. Explanation of gender pay gap

2. Last year’s scrollytelling article takes a look at the change in real earnings over the last decade and how different age groups have been affected

3. Scroll through our scrollytelling article to see how earnings have changed over the years and how furlough has impacted it
   

   Click here for our scrollytelling article
4. Why we use the median in earnings statistics

Pension Results

The provisional results from the pensions element of the Northern Ireland ASHE 2021 were published on 20th April 2022.

• NI ASHE 2021 Pension Results

Earnings and Employees Study (EES) 2011

The Earnings and Employees Study (EES) 2011 links together variables from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2011 with variables from the Census of Population and Housing 2011, and Capital Value data from the Land and Property Services. 

Access to the EES dataset is limited to researchers and research teams with accredited researcher status under the Digital Economy Act (DEA) and subject to approval by each of the data providers and the UK Statistics Authority Research Accreditation Panel (RAP).

Further information on the application process is available here.

NI ASHE Background Information

• Background to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings
• Comparison of ASHE and PAYE RTI
• Guidance for completing the ASHE 2023 survey
• ONS quality and methodology for ASHE

Mailing list

If you would like to be added to a mailing list and receive the latest publications on the day they publish please email: economicstats@nisra.gov.uk  with the title of the publications you would like to receive.