"The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is a new survey developed to replace the New Earnings Survey (NES). The ASHE includes improvements to the coverage of employees and to the weighting of earnings estimates.This article uses the median as its key estimator. It is preferred to the mean for earnings as it is less affected by extreme values and the skewed distribution of earnings data. The median is the value below which 50 per cent of employees fall. However means are still available in the published tables.The first few sections of this article present summary results of the 2004 ASHE (and where relevant the 1998 to 2003 back series) that look at overall medians, make-up and distribution of earnings. While these figures are of interest, they can hide wide variations between different industries, occupations, regions and age groups. The concluding sections of the article give summary analyses of each of these factors."

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