The ONS published the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings today, which contains some very useful data. For the first time, they have produced an interactive tool to help explore some of the new figures. It graphically illustrates the occupations with the highest and lowest earnings, allows the user to see which occupations have similar salaries, and incorporates a couple of quick quizzes comparing. It would look good on a whiteboard as an introduction to Labour Markets and some of the issues around gender pay gaps, different pay rates for different occupations and elasticity of supply of labour.

For example, which of these would you expect to be the highest earners:

• Senior Police officers
• Medical Practitioners
• Airline pilots
• IT directors
• Air traffic controllers

And at the other end of the scale, which of these do you think earn the least:

• Nursery nurses
• Hairdressers
• Retail cashiers
• Bar staff
• Cleaners