The Wage and Employment Dynamics (WED) project is an ADR UK/ESRC-funded initiative that is developing a sustainable, linked administrative data infrastructure to transform research on wages, employment and labour market outcomes in Great Britain.
Working in partnership with data owners, the project is creating a comprehensive “wage and employment spine” that enables researchers to examine how earnings, employment and labour market experiences evolve over time. The resulting datasets provide new opportunities to investigate issues such as wage progression, labour market inequalities, migration, employment transitions, low pay persistence and the impacts of labour market policy. The WED project has progressed through a series of linked development phases, each expanding the analytical potential of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).
Phase 1: Developing the Core ASHE Dataset
The foundation of the project was the creation of an enhanced and research-ready version of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), the UK’s most comprehensive source of information on employee earnings and paid hours. Alongside improving documentation and accessibility, the WED team developed a range of derived variables and analytical resources, including enhanced weighting approaches, minimum wage indicators, longitudinal markers and supporting code to improve consistency and reproducibility across research projects. These developments provide the foundation for all subsequent data linkages.
Phase 2: Linking ASHE to Census 2011 (ASHE–Census 2011)
The first major linkage connected ASHE to Census 2011 data for England and Wales. This linkage substantially expanded the range of personal and household characteristics available to researchers by incorporating information on:
- Educational attainment
- Ethnicity
- Disability
- Religion
- Migration background
- Household circumstances
- Family composition
The linkage has opened up new opportunities to study labour market inequalities, wage gaps, social mobility and the relationship between demographic characteristics and earnings outcomes.
Phase 3: Linking ASHE to HMRC Data (ASHE–PAYE and ASHE–Self Assessment)
Building on the Census linkage, WED linked ASHE to HMRC administrative records, including Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Self Assessment (SA) data. These linkages enrich the wage and employment spine by providing:
- Detailed earnings histories between annual ASHE observations
- Information on employment transitions
- Data on multiple jobs and employment spells
- Information on self-employment and non-employment income
- Improved understanding of total income beyond earnings alone
The resulting datasets support more detailed longitudinal analysis of labour market trajectories and income dynamics than has previously been possible.
Phase 4: Linking ASHE to the Migrant Workers Scan (ASHE–MWS)
The next stage of development linked ASHE to HMRC’s Migrant Workers Scan (MWS). This linkage enables researchers to identify migrant workers and examine their labour market experiences over time. The dataset includes information on characteristics such as nationality, age, gender and arrival date, providing new opportunities to study:
- Migrant labour market integration
- Earnings progression among migrants
- Employment trajectories
- Labour market inequalities
- Regional and sectoral differences in migrant employment
When used alongside the wider WED data infrastructure, ASHE-MWS provides an important resource for understanding migration and employment dynamics in Britain.
Phase 5: Linking ASHE to Census 2021 and Creating a Longitudinal Census Linkage
The current phase of the project focuses on linking ASHE to Census 2021 for England and Wales.
This linkage updates the demographic and household information available to researchers. The linked dataset is expected to become available during 2026.
A major innovation of this phase is the creation of a longitudinal ASHE–Census resource, enabling researchers to connect information from both the 2011 and 2021 Censuses for a subset of individuals. This will create new opportunities to study labour market experiences over longer periods and examine how changes in personal and household circumstances relate to employment and earnings outcomes.
Ongoing Development and Maintenance
WED is designed as a long-term research infrastructure rather than a one-off data linkage project.
The team continues to:
- Add new annual waves of ASHE data
- Maintain and quality assure existing linked datasets
- Improve metadata and documentation
- Develop supporting code and analytical resources
- Engage with researchers and stakeholders
- Explore future linkage opportunities that will further enhance the wage and employment spine
Through this ongoing work, WED is creating a sustainable platform for policy-relevant labour market research and helping to maximise the value of administrative data for public good research.
Accessing WED Data
WED datasets are made available through secure research environments, including the ONS Secure Research Service, subject to the relevant approvals and accreditation requirements. The project also provides extensive documentation, training materials, code resources and a growing community of users to support researchers working with the data.