Revisiting sample bias in the UK's Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, with implications for estimates of low pay and the bite of the national living wage

We gratefully acknowledge funding from ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK) and the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant No. ES/T013877/1). The work is based on analysis of the research-ready datasets from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) (ONS, 2024a), Business Structure Database (ONS, 2024b) and Annual Population Survey (ONS, 2023a), accessed through the ONS Secure Research Service. The use of the ONS data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS or data owners in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. This work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates. National Statistics follow consistent statistical conventions over time and cannot be compared to these findings. We thank Susan Purdon, Eduin Latimer, and participants at the 2023 Work and Pensions Economics Group Conference, 2023 Low Pay Commission Research Symposium, and 2024 Annual Conference of the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) for valuable comments.