Metric permalink

Real average weekly earnings growth

Official

Part of the Living Standards domain. Year-on-year real-terms growth in average weekly earnings (regular pay, excluding bonuses), indicating whether typical pay is keeping pace with inflation.

Latest data

Latest reading

Latest value
0.4% year-on-year (real terms)

2026

Previous value
0.3% year-on-year (real terms)
32pts
Direction of badnesslower is worse

A lower reading is treated as worse for this indicator.

Score composition

Stress score

38/100

Blended from three components: (60% weight), trend (30% weight) and volatility (10% weight). Full formula on the methodology page.

Level · 60% weight

48percentile

Percentile: this metric is scored against its own history, where today sits between its best and worst recorded years.

Trend · 30% weight

0improving

Measured from the direction and size of the change between the two most recent readings.

Volatility · 10% weight

100

Measured from how much this indicator has swung period on period across its recorded history.

Data confidence and provenance

Confidence and source

0.85High0.85

How much weight to put on the reading, the mean data-confidence across the component metrics (source quality, recency and completeness).

Source

Office for National StatisticsOfficial

Labour market overview

Update frequency
Monthly
Reliability
medium
View source series ↗

Provenance

Provider
ONS
Series ID
A2F9/EMP
Frequency
monthly
Accessed
13 August 2026

Known weakness

Average weekly earnings is a mean (not a median) and covers Great Britain only; the real-terms figure depends on the chosen inflation deflator.

Notes

Verified official value from ONS (A2F9/EMP), accessed 2026-08-13.

Historical values

History

PeriodValueRelative
20071.6
20080.1
2009-0.7
2010-1.2
2011-1.6
2012-1.2
2013-0.7
20140.7
20151.5
20160.5
20170
20181.3
20191.8
20203.5
2021-0.9
2022-2.4
20231.9
20242.4
20250.3
20260.4