Weekly earnings for full-time employees in NI fall by 1%
- Published
Typical weekly earnings for full-time employees in Northern Ireland fell by 1% over the past year.
It means typical weekly pay fell from £535 to £529, official figures suggest.
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) said this is the first annual decrease since 2014 and the largest fall on record.
Real weekly earnings, which strip out the effect of inflation, have fallen for the second time and are now close to 2010 levels.
Average annual earnings for full-time employees rose to £28,000 in Northern Ireland, but remained lower than the UK average of £31,000.
Northern Ireland has the second lowest weekly earnings of the UK regions, £57 below UK average.
There was a larger fall in private sector earnings than in the public sector.
NI highest percentage of 'low paid' jobs
The typical public sector employee still earns about a third more (£619) than the typical private sector employee (£463).
Some of the difference between the public and private sector figures are due to differences in the composition of the respective workforces.
Many of the lowest-paid occupations, such as hospitality and retail, exist almost exclusively in the private sector, while in the public sector there is a larger proportion of graduate-level and professional occupations.
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings was carried out in April 2020 and Nisra said about 25% of those who took part in the survey were on the government's job retention scheme.
The impact of the furlough scheme on pay can be seen across the earnings estimates, and more notably when low pay is considered.
Northern Ireland still has the highest percentage of "low paid" jobs of all the UK regions, with one in five of all jobs "low-paid."
This is the lowest proportion in 20 years but the highest proportion of the 12 UK regions.
Low pay is defined as the value that is two-thirds of typical UK hourly earnings.
The proportion of jobs below the National Minimum and National Living Wage increased from 1% in 2019 to 10% in 2020 - more than 90% of employees below this level were on furlough receiving 80% of their wages.
The survey says this is the eleventh year when the gender pay gap in NI has been zero or in favour of women working full time.
Typical hourly earnings for women working full time (£13.28) was 3.6% greater than men working full time (£12.82).
Northern Ireland remains the only region in the UK where full-time females earn more per hour on average than men.
However, when all employees (regardless of working pattern) are considered, the gender pay gap is reversed, and men earn more on average than women.
This is because a greater proportion of women are in part-time work, where average pay is lower.
- Published1 November 2020
- Published30 September 2021
