Who earns more than me? – new figures

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has created interactive tools that allow you to delve into the closed world of other people’s salaries and discover who earns the most and who takes home the least.

The ONS has also published figures on life expectancy showing where people live longest.

If you hold other people’s lives in your hands, you are blessed. Pilots are on the highest average annual salaries (£90,420), with air traffic controllers pocketing £79,874.

Chief executives are paid £81,521, doctors £71,141, financial managers and directors £61,108, and senior police officers £57,896.

Now to the lowest paid. At the bottom of the earnings league are waiters and waitresses, on £12,507, and bar staff, on £12,948. Hairdessers and cleaners do not fare very well either, with earnings of £13,373 and £14,164 respectively.

Butchers are paid £18,678 and bakers £17,871, but alas, candlestick makers do not feature in the ONS’s drop-down list.

As you might expect, solicitors and economists are well paid (£41,178 and £43,493 respectively), with electricians on £30,172, plumbers £28,253, and call centre staff £16,711.

You can also find out who earns the same as you, whether men or women earn more in particular jobs (female midwives and opticians are paid more than their male counterparts), the average earnings in the region you work, and where wages are highest.

In 1997, salaries were highest in London and south east England and lowest in Northern Ireland. The picture is the same in 2014.

But it is striking that Scotland was in the middle of the earnings league relative to other parts of the UK in 1997, and has now moved up to third place.

Living longer

The good news is that life expectancy for newborn babies across England and Wales has increased by at least five years for boys and 3.4 years for girls over the last 20 years.

But there are significant differences between regions: in 2011-13, life expectancy for newborn baby boys was highest in South Cambridgeshire (83 years) and lowest in Blackpool (74.3 years).

For baby girls, it was highest in Chiltern (86.4 years) and lowest in Manchester (80 years).

Life expectancy in London has increased faster than in any other part of England and Wales since records began in 1991-1993.

A baby boy born in the capital in 2011-13 can expect to live 6.7 years longer than a baby boy born there 20 years ago, while a baby girl can expect to live 4.8 years longer.