Newly published research has found that Cumbria has the biggest county pay gap in England, with a £500 weekly wage difference between the highest and lowest earnings areas.
The study by international payment provider RationalFX involved analysing the median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees in more than 300 local authority areas in England. Findings highlighted that Cumbria has the largest disparity in salary, with the highest wage of £949.50 per week in Copeland being more than double the lowest wage of £450.70 per week in South Lakeland.
Merseyside placed second on the list, with a £403.50 gap between the weekly wage of £909 in Knowsley and £505.50 in St Helens, an 80% increase.
East London is third on the list, with a 77% increase from the lowest wage of £541.80 in Bexley, to the highest salary of £956.30 in Tower Hamlets. Overall, London is the wider English region with the second largest wage gap, going from a median weekly wage of £519.20 in Harrow to the two times higher figure of £1,103.10 in the City of London.
In addition, the research also revealed that the county with the smallest earnings discrepancy is Dorset, where the difference in the median earnings of £536.60 between those in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and £537.00 in the unitary authority area of Dorset is just 40p, or 0.1%. In the county of East Riding of Yorkshire, the median wage of £527.90 in the unitary authority areas of Kingston upon Hull and £522.90 in East Riding are just £5 different, or around 1%.
Commenting on the study, a spokesperson for RationalFX said: “It’s very interesting to see how much pay can vary between different parts of the same county or the same region. Many might expect parts of London to top the list for the biggest wage gap, so it might come as a surprise to see Cumbria has the largest difference.”