The ASHE 2008 records a 4.6% rise in median gross weekly pay for full-time UK workers over the year to April 2008. This is 0.4 percentage points above the rate of headline retail prices index (RPI) inflation (subscription required) over the same period (4.2%).

A focus on gender pay differentials reveals that full-time adult women employees earned 87.2% of men's median hourly pay excluding overtime in April 2008. The resulting gender pay gap is therefore 12.8%. This represents a widening of 0.3 percentage points compared with the 12.5% equal pay gap recorded in April 2007. It is back in line with that recorded for April 2006 (subscription required), which also stood at 12.8%.

The IRS analysis also includes a round-up reactions from official bodies, and our own uprating estimates of how the April 2008 figures have been affected by subsequent increases in average earnings.

Additionally, XpertHR's official pay pages provide a detailed look at the the ASHE 2008 headline figures, alongside comprehensive breakdowns detailing weekly, annual and hourly pay by occupational group, industry sector, and geographical location (subscription required for each).

• Has your organisation recently carried out an annual pay review? If so, and if it has now been settled, please get in touch so that we can add your organisation's pay award to the IRS database.