Research shows official earnings statistics underestimate gender pay gap
Research published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations on 25 August 2025 has concluded that jobs in small, young, private sector organisations are under-represented in UK official earnings statistics provided by the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). ASHE has sought to address known response biases in the achieved annual samples (which comprise 1% of all employee jobs), by introducing cross-sectional weights to make them representative of the working population by gender, age, occupation and region. However, researchers from institutions such as the Business School at City, University of London, UCL, UWE Bristol and the University of Stirling found that jobs in smaller, younger and private sector organisations remain under-represented in the achieved annual samples, even after applying those weights.