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Managers And Senior Officials Earn £27,175 Per Annum More Than The Lowest Grade Workers

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Date / 10 May 2005

Pay gap of £47,037 in London

On average managers and senior officials have gross pay of £27,175 per annum more than the average for the lowest grade occupations in the United Kingdom. This figure is from a new analysis by GMB of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2004 from the Office of National Statistics.

In the UK as a whole the mean gross average pay for fulltime managers and senior officials is £42,970 per annum. By contrast the gross average pay for the fulltime, lowest grade occupations like cleaners, bar staff, security guards, labourers, hospital porters etc. is £15,795 per annum. That means that on average managers and senior officials earn 272% of the average pay of the lowest grade workers.

This new survey follows on from an analysis of official job data from the Labour Force Survey released by GMB earlier this week which shows that managers and senior officials are now the largest occupational group in the economy amounting to 15% or one in seven of all workers. By comparison there are approximately 3.2 million workers in the lowest occupational grades. This amounts to 11.7% of all workers in the economy.

The pay gap in London is even higher than the national average. In London managers and senior officials on average earn a gross pay of £64,978. This compares with a gross average pay of £ 17,941 for the lowest grade occupations in London. Thus, there is a pay gap of £47,037. Managers and senior officials in London earn 362% of what the lowest grade do.

In money terms the pay gap in the different regions is as follows: -

Eastern £22,920, South East £26,579, West Midlands £20,850, North West £21,555, East Midlands £20,137, South West £21,265, Wales £17,798, Yorkshire & Humberside £20,789, Scotland £20,630 and North East £18,224. The full analysis for the UK and the Regions is on page 2 of this release. By comparison a worker on the National Minimum Wage of £4.85 an hour for 38 hours per week would have gross earnings of £9,583.60 per annum.

Paul Kenny, GMB Acting General Secretary said, “The fact that the average gap in the gross pay for managers and the gross pay for the lowest grades, at more than £27,000 a year, is nearly three times the amount of the national minimum wage demonstrates the level of income inequality in Britain. This is the average figure. There are fat cats on ten times that money. GMB members who keep our country going day by day doing the essential jobs are very conscious of the growing pay gap between the top and the bottom grades and are also very conscious that there has been a huge inflation in the –Numbers and pay of senior managers and officials. The GMB is calling on both the public and private sector employers not to allow the pay gap to get any bigger and to seek scope to cut back on the costs of an over managed economy.”

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings Table 3.a Gross Annual Pay for Full-time employee jobs 2004

Mean Annual pay

End

Contact: Rose Conroy GMB Press Officer on 07974 251823 or Steve Pryle GMB Press Officer on 07921 289880

Notes to editors:

1 The occupations in the lowest grades are farm workers, forestry workers, labourers in construction and factories, packers, bottlers, canners and fillers, postal workers, messengers, hospital and hotel porters, kitchen and catering assistants, waiting staff, bar staff, leisure and theme park attendants, cleaners, refuse workers and road sweepers, domestics, laundry workers, security guards, traffic wardens and car park attendants, school meals assistants and shelf fillers.

2 Managers and Senior Officials comprise senior officials in national and local government, directors and chief executives of major organisations, production managers, functional managers like in finance, marketing, advertising, personnel, research and development, communications, quality and customer care managers, transport, storage and retail and wholesale distribution managers, officers in the armed services, police and fire service etc., health and social service managers, managers in rural industries and hospitality and leisure services, property managers, garage managers, recycling and refuse disposal mangers. Please note they do not include professional occupations.

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