Earnings Survey

The annual Earnings Survey is compulsory under the Statistics Act 1999 and collects information on individuals’ gross earnings and hours of work.

Individuals are randomly selected from Income Tax records and forms are sent to the last known employer. The questionnaire asks for details of the employee's sex, date of birth, industry, hours of work along with basic pay, overtime and incentive payments. The pay period refers to mid June and the deadline for submission is September. There is a financial penalty for non-response.

The results are released in a form that does not allow for individuals to be identified. Average earnings of full time employees are calculated, the distribution of earnings is illustrated, Isle of Man salaries compared with the UK are highlighted and the private and public sector are compared.

The survey is of gross earnings before deductions of income tax and national insurance. Gross earnings include overtime, shift premia and payment by results in addition to basic pay.

2017 Results

Full-time earnings rose last year by 3.9%, but fell very slightly by 0.1% when adjusted for inflation, according to statistics contained in the Government’s annual Earnings Survey. 

Published by the Government’s Cabinet Office, the survey provides a snapshot of earnings in June 2017 based on a random sample of employees drawn from income tax records. 

It shows the median gross weekly pay of full-time employees in the sample was £558, taking into account overtime, shift premiums and bonus payments compared with £537 the year before. 

Other headline statistics from the Earnings Survey include: 

• Full-time employees worked an average of 37.7 hours per week, including 1.1 hours of overtime.
• Median earnings were 1.4% higher than those in the United Kingdom.
• 14% of employees in 2017 earned less than the Isle of Man Living Wage, down from 16% in 2016, and 5% of employees earned the Minimum Wage. 

Minister for Policy and Reform, Chris Thomas MHK, said:

'Our economic growth needs to benefit everyone in their back pockets as this is good for them, good for local business and it makes it easier for Government to sustain high quality public services. Unfortunately - as inflation has ticked up - the real value of earnings has not increased for most people last year.' 

He continued:

'Thus it is vital that Government isn’t complacent and does everything it can to grow jobs, hold down price rises and ease financial pressures at home.'