For those working in Buckinghamshire, earnings have risen by 4.1 per cent over the last year, almost double the national rate, and the 3rd highest rate of growth of any county council area or LEP.  At £34,602, residence based earnings are the 2nd highest among county council areas, ranking 3rd among LEPs.  Residence-based earnings in Buckinghamshire grew 5.2 per cent in the last year, outpacing growth in workplace-based earnings for third time in four years, taking the gap to £2,743 (8.6 per cent) at the median.

The gender pay gap for those working in Buckinghamshire reached 25.0 per cent at the median in 2017 and 20.8 per cent at the mean, the 6th and 11th highest gaps among the 38 LEPs and well above the respective 9.1 and 14.1 per cent gaps recorded across the country as a whole.  For full-time employees working in Buckinghamshire, the gender pay gap was 16.0 per cent in favour of men at the median and 15.8 per cent at the mean.

Table 1: Annual gross median full-time residence & workplace based earnings, 2017

Source: ASHE, ONS, 2017

All four of Buckinghamshire’s districts have earnings above the national level for both residents and workers.  Aylesbury Vale saw the strongest increase in workplace-based earnings in the last year, recording the 28th highest growth of all 380 local authority districts in Great Britain at 8.3 per cent.  Chiltern saw residence-based pay grow 22.7 per cent at the median, the 2nd highest rate of growth in the country, behind Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, while those working in the district saw a fall of 0.8 per cent.

While the gross median full-time pay is lower for residents than workers in Wycombe, it is higher in the other districts, with the gap reaching £14,755 (49.3 per cent) in Chiltern, the highest absolute and relative gaps in the country.

Chart 1: Gross median full time earnings (GB=100), 2017¹

Source: ASHE, ONS, 2017

At £31,535, the High Wycombe and Aylesbury travel to work area (TTWA) has the 11th highest workplace-based gross median full-time earnings of all 151 TTWAs in England, ahead of the Milton Keynes TTWA which includes Buckingham and Winslow (£30,075, 18th) but behind the £33,619 recorded in the Slough and Heathrow TTWA, which includes all of South Bucks except Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross, to rank 4th behind the Whitehaven, London and Reading TTWAs.

Over the last year, gross hourly pay at the 10th percentile for people working in Buckinghamshire rose by 5.5 per cent, taking the increase since 2012 to 17.2 per cent, the highest rise of any decile over both periods.  At the median, gross hourly pay fell 0.8 per cent in the last year taking the rise since 2012 down to 4.8 per cent.  The next highest rise in hourly earnings in the last year was seen at the 20th percentile (up 5.2 per cent and 11.2 per cent since 2012), ahead of the 90th percentile at 4.8 per cent where the growth in earnings since 2012 has been only 3.2 per cent.

By quartile, since 2012 gross median full-time earnings have risen fastest at the 25th percentile on both the residence and workplace-based measures, ahead of the 75th percentile, with the slowest growth recorded for both measures at the median.  Pay for those working in Buckinghamshire at the 25th percentile was 48.3 per cent of pay at the 75th percentile, down from 48.8 per cent in 2012, while residents’ pay at the 25th percentile had rebounded, reaching 45.3 per cent in 2017, up from 43.7 per cent in 2012 and 43.6 per cent in 2016.

[1] South Bucks’ residence figure is for 2016

Chart 2: Change in Buckinghamshire’s gross hourly earnings by percentile (%), 2012-2017

Source: ASHE, ONS, 2017

Table 2: Full-time annual gross median residence & workplace based earnings by sex, 2017

Source: ASHE, ONS, 2017

The ONS’s overview of the data can be found here.