According to the ASHE 2009 estimates on low pay as at April 2009:

There were 242,000 jobs with pay less than the national minimum wage held by people aged 16 or over. This constitutes 0.9 per cent of UK jobs.

This figure is 32,000 below the number of jobs with pay levels below the national minimum wage recorded in 2008.

A breakdown by age reveals the following pattern:

There were 14,000 jobs held by 16 to 17-year-olds (4.1% of jobs held by those in this age group) with pay less than £3.53 per hour. For 18 to 21-year-olds, there were 44,000 jobs with pay less than £4.77 per hour (2.6% of jobs held by those in this age group), while for employees aged 22 and over, there were 184,000 jobs with pay less than £5.73 per hour (0.8% of jobs held by those in this age).

The latest national minimum wage increase came into effect from Thursday 1 October 2009, taking the adult rate from £5.73 to £5.80 per hour for 2009/2010, an increase of 1.2%.

The development rate (for workers aged 18 to 21 inclusive) rose from £4.77 to £4.83 per hour, while the youth rate (for those aged 16 and 17) rose from £3.53 to £3.57 per hour.

Each year, the ASHE survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) presents the most compendious and precise resource for UK pay benchmarking data.

XpertHR's official pay data pages (subscription required) will be updated in the coming weeks to provide easily accessible pay benchmarking resources, including detailed earnings breakdowns by occupation, industry sector and geographical region.

• 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.