Estimates are available for local authorities, parliamentary constituencies (2010), regions and countries.  ASHE estimates are not available below local authority or constituency level i.e. no ward or super output area data.

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is based on a one per cent sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) PAYE records.  Information on earnings and hours is obtained from employers and treated confidentially.  ASHE does not cover the self-employed nor does it cover employees not paid during the reference period.  In 2010 information related to the pay period which included 21 April.

The headline statistics for ASHE are based on the median rather than the mean.  The median is the value below which 50 per cent of employees fall.  It is ONS's preferred measure of average earnings as it is less affected by a relatively small number of very high earners and the skewed distribution of earnings.  It therefore gives a better indication of typical pay than the mean.

The earnings information presented relates to gross pay before tax, National Insurance or other deductions, and excludes payments in kind.  With the exception of annual earnings, the results are restricted to earnings relating to the survey pay period and so exclude payments of arrears from another period made during the survey period; any payments due as a result of a pay settlement but not yet paid at the time of the survey will also be excluded.
Most of the published ASHE analyses (i.e. excluding annual earnings) relate to full-time employees on adult rates whose earnings for the survey pay period were not affected by absence.  They do not include the earnings of those who did not work a full week, and whose earnings were reduced for other reasons, such as sickness.  Also, they do not include the earnings of employees not on adult rates of pay, most of whom will be young people.

Full-time employees are defined as those who work more than 30 paid hours per week or those in teaching professions working 25 paid hours or more per week.

Within the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, Basingstoke and Deane has similar wage levels to Surrey Heath, Guildford and Winchester. 

 
The data supporting this graph can be seen below.