£58,980 - the average salary for workers in the City

Workers in the City of London earn an average of £971 a week, up nine per cent on last year and £600 more than the average wage in Cornwall and Devon, figures released yesterday showed.

At £58,980, average salaries in London's financial district are the highest in Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics. The average salary in Britain is £24,603. Across London the figure is £34,762, in Scotland £22,016, in Wales £20,758 and £18,000 in the extreme South-West. In the City of London, the average gross weekly wage is pushed up by the six- and seven-figure salaries of leading bankers, lawyers and senior executives. Here the top 10 per cent of earners are paid more than £1,668 per week – a figure which is most closely rivalled in nearby Tower Hamlets, where the wages of Canary Wharf high-fliers exceed £1,368 a week.

The pay gap in the City remains startling, with the average male wage of £1,148 far outstripping the £690 paid to women because of the bigger pay rises and faster promotion enjoyed by professional men.

Elsewhere in London, employees working in the boroughs of Westminster and Camden have average weekly wages of £716 and £657. Outside the capital, the high-technology, high-productivity industries of the Thames Valley offer the best rates of pay.

Bracknell Forest and Slough are the only places outside London where the average adult wage exceeds £600 a week, with figures of £613 and £605 respectively.

The Thames Valley corridor is the only area outside London where wages for the top 10 per cent of earners exceed £1,000. In West Berkshire, the most highly-paid earn more than £1,070 a week, in Slough £1,113 and in Windsor and Maidenhead, £1,040. Andrew Beales, an economist for the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "The Thames Valley area of the Home Counties has been very successful in business terms. The area has attracted various kinds of high-tech companies. They are very productive, high-wage industries and because they are so successful, they breed further success."

Women in Surrey Heath have the highest average wages outside the capital at £461 a week, while women in Tameside, Greater Manchester, have the lowest at £299. Elsewhere, the lowest weekly wages are paid in parts of the South-West of England, Scotland, and Wales which have experienced high unemployment, a decline in traditional industries and agriculture, and a dependency on seasonal tourism.

In Torbay, Devon, the average wage is £340 a week, in Cornwall £348, in Conwy, Wales £353, while in Moray and the Scottish Borders it is £346.

Aberdeen has the highest wages in Scotland because of the oil industry, with an average gross figure of £504 a week. The area's top 10 per cent of earners are paid an average of £936 a week.

The Office for National Statistics said that Southampton, North Lincolnshire, Blackpool and Aberdeenshire had enjoyed the biggest increase in weekly earnings.

Southampton saw a 13 per cent increase from the previous year to an average of £487 a week, Blackpool and North Lincolnshire a 12 per cent rise to £368 and £438 respectively, while pay in Aberdeenshire rose by 12 per cent to £414.