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STATISTICAL RELEASE

Ref: 111/08
Date: 11 April 2008

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Earnings and hours of Agricultural and Horticultural Workers
England and Wales - January 2008

The latest national statistics on Earnings and Hours of Agricultural and Horticultural Workers produced by Defra were released on 10th April 2008 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

This release shows the average weekly earnings and hours in England and Wales for January 2008, and for the 12 months ending January 2008.

The key points from the latest release are:

The average weekly earnings of male full time workers, aged 20 and over in England and Wales in January 2008 was £334.18 based on an average of 46 weekly hours. The equivalent for female full time workers was £306.18 based on 42.9 weekly hours. (See Table 1)

Female part time workers, aged 20 and over in England and Wales were earning an average of £178.84 per week during the 12 months ending January 2008. The average earnings per hour for these female part time workers was £6.76 based on an average of 26.5 hours per week. The equivalent for male part time workers was £136.21 with an hourly rate of £6.48 based on an average of 21 hours per week. (See Table 2)

Notes to editors

Accuracy and Reliability of the Results

The results contained in this Statistical Notice have been obtained from a sample of holdings. As a guide to the accuracy of the results we have included the number of workers in the sample for each type of worker. We have also included the 95% Confidence Interval for the main results.

For example, in Table 1, the Average Earnings/Hour of Male Full Time Workers aged 20 and over in our sample for January 2008 was £7.26 and we can be 95% confident that the population average for all Male Full Time Workers in England and Wales lies within + or - £0.28 of this figure.

The reliability of the results in this Statistical Notice depend on agricultural holdings providing sensitive information on the earnings of their workers. This should be kept in mind when considering the results.

Definitions used in the tables
  1. Average Weekly Earnings include cash earnings, contributions to council tax, holiday pay, sick pay, bonuses and an appropriate value of payments in kind.
  2. Average Weekly Hours Worked include all hours worked, paid holidays and paid sick leave. Unpaid leave is not included.
  3. The Average AWB derived Earnings/Hour figures quoted in this Statistical Notice only correspond to the specific characteristics of the workers included in the sample and should only be used for comparison purposes with the actual earnings of these workers.  Details of AWB rates are available from the Agricultural Wages Board Order.
  4. The Average Premium/Hour figure is the difference between the average earnings per/hour recorded for workers in the sample and their corresponding average AWB earnings/hour derived from AWB rates.
  5. The information in this Statistical Notice relates only to workers aged 20 and over.
  6. In Table 1, there is no estimate for the number of hours worked by managers, as many of those recorded by the survey were salaried and had no fixed working hours.
  7. Annual data have been derived using survey data for the current and previous 3 survey periods.  The data have been weighted to remove any bias due to sampling or response rates.  Seasonal weights have been applied to data for casual workers to place more importance on casual workers employed during the harvest period.
Publication

This survey will next be conducted to collect data for March 2008.  The results will be available in June 2007.  A dataset containing historical results from this survey can be found at: http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/datasets/ehrwtma.xls

Defra statistical releases can be viewed on the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk. This also contains details of future publications, with pre-announced dates.

 

Table 1:  Average earnings and hours by type of worker, aged 20 and over in England and Wales for January 2008
Type of worker FULL TIME PART TIME CASUAL MANAGERS
  MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE MALE FEMALE  

Average Weekly Earnings

 £334.18

 £306.18

 £126.36

 £186.93

 £201.33

 £195.27

 £545.72

(+/- £18.32)

(+/- £28.13)

(+/- £37.96)

(+/- £37.68)

(+/- £38.59)

(+/- £53.08)

(+/- £51.52)

Average Weekly Hours Worked

46.0

42.9

19.0

26.4

30.1

30.3

N/A

(+/- 2.4)

(+/- 2.5)

(+/- 5.4)

(+/- 5.1)

(+/- 5.4)

(+/- 8.3)

 

Average Earnings/Hour

 £7.26

 £7.14

 £6.65

 £7.08

 £6.69

 £6.44

 N/A

 

(+/- £0.28)

(+/- £0.41)

(+/- £0.50)

(+/- £0.49)

(+/- £0.55)

(+/- £0.50)

 

Average AWB Minimum Earnings/Hour

 £7.02

 £6.80

 £6.46

 £6.50

 £5.81

 £6.25

 N/A

Average Premium/Hour

 £0.24

 £0.34

 £0.18

 £0.58

 £0.87

 £0.19

 N/A

Number of workers in the sample

101

32

15

30

28

17

63

tabel1

 

Table 2:  Average earnings and hours by type of worker, aged 20 and over in England and Wales for the 12 months ending January 2008
Type of worker

FULL TIME

PART TIME

CASUAL

MANAGERS

MALE

FEMALE

MALE

FEMALE

MALE

FEMALE

 

Average Weekly Earnings

 £357.63

 £293.75

 £136.21

 £178.84

 £202.87

 £147.53

 £516.98

 

(+/- £13.87)

(+/- £17.21)

(+/- £19.06)

(+/- £16.81)

(+/- £23.18)

(+/- £25.66)

(+/- £25.19)

Average Weekly Hours Worked

47.5

42.7

21.0

26.5

30.1

24.8

N/A

(+/- 1.4)

(+/- 2.1)

(+/- 2.7)

(+/- 2.2)

(+/- 3.4)

(+/- 4.2)

 

Average Earnings/Hour

 £7.52

 £6.87

 £6.48

 £6.76

 £6.74

 £5.95

 N/A

 

(+/- £0.16)

(+/- £0.16)

(+/- £0.35)

(+/- £0.31)

(+/- £0.34)

(+/- £0.27)

 

Average AWB Minimum Earnings/Hour

 £6.99

 £6.48

 £6.11

 £6.16

 £5.93

 £5.81

 N/A

Average Premium/Hour

 £0.53

 £0.39

 £0.37

 £0.59

 £0.81

 £0.14

 N/A

Number of workers in the sample

330

237

64

109

117

58

251

tabel2

End

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Page published: 11 April 2008

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs