Summary of the editorial from IDS Pay Report 989, November 2007

Experimental pay figures show strong growth in average earnings

The latest figures under the experimental Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) series from the Office for National Statistics state that average earnings across the whole economy grew strongly, by 5.0 per cent, including bonuses, in the year to August 2007. Regular readers will note the difference between the latest AWE figure and that for the Average Earnings Index (AEI). Under the AEI series, average earnings growth in the year to August was 4.2 per cent, including bonus effects. These figures have been behind those for the AWE since October 2006.

But which figures are right? In many ways, this isn’t a fair question, because each series is subtly different, and in their own ways, both can be regarded as ‘correct’. A better question might be, ‘Which one do I use?’, because they measure changes in earnings in slightly different ways, and this accounts for the different figures produced by each series.

... the full editorial can be read in IDS Pay Report 989