City pay averages £59,000

City workers earn £59,000 a year - almost double the London average.

Figures released today show an average of £971 a week. This compares with an average salary of £34,762 in London and £24,603 across Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Researchers said the average wage within the Square Mile is pushed up by the six and sevenfigure salaries of leading bankers, lawyers and senior executives, the top 10 per cent of whom earn more than £1,600 a week.

Despite the high average, however, the pay gap between men and women remains in place, according to the ONS survey.

Women earn an average of £690 compared with £1,148 for men, a discrepancy blamed on the bigger pay rises and faster promotion enjoyed by professional men.

London contained the highest earners in Britain, according to the study. Outside the City, Canary Wharf, Westminster and Islington had the highestearning workers.

The average weekly wage in Tower Hamlets, where Canary Wharf is based, was £773, in Westminster £716 and in Islington £663. The borough of Camden was the next highest, with workers earning an average of £657 a week.

Outside the capital, the hightechnology industries of the Thames Valley offer the best pay. Bracknell Forest and Slough, for example, are the only places outside London where the average wage exceeds £600 a week, with figures of £613 and £605 respectively.

Economist Andrew Beales, of the British Chamber of Commerce, said: "The Thames Valley area of the Home Counties has been very successful in business terms. It has attracted various kinds of hi-tech companies. They are very productive, high-wage industries and because they are so successful, they breed further success."

The lowest weekly wages were found in the South-West, Scotland and Wales, where the loss of traditional industries has led to high unemployment and a dependency on tourism.

Torbay in Devon has the lowest average wage at £340 a week. In the Scottish Borders the average is £346, in Cornwall £348, and in Conwy, Wales, £353.

Aberdeen has the highest wages in Scotland due to the oil industry.