Political editor Jonathan Walker takes an in-depth look at new data on salaries in the West Midlands – and finds a host of inequalities.

We may well be ‘‘all in it together”, according to the Government, but the truth is that the economic crisis hit some of us harder than others.

Employees on modest salaries saw their wages drop last year as businesses asked workers to make sacrifices during the economic downturn.

But it was all smiles for those at the top of the pay scale – who continued to pocket significant rises.

The variable fortunes of West Midlands employees are revealed by the Government’s official salary survey, published by the Office for National Statistics.

It shows that while private sector employees were feeling the pinch, public sector workers were largely immune to the effects of the downturn last year and continued to receive pay rises.

The survey also highlights the continuing pay gap that exists between men and women. But while women earn far less, they at least enjoyed a modest pay rise last year, while men saw their salaries fall.

The figures were revealed in the 2010 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

Our analysis of the figures examined the gross annual salaries earned by people in full time employment.

It’s often said that the West Midlands has been hit harder than other regions by the economic downturn, but this usually refers to the fact that unemployment rose more quickly in the region than elsewhere.

However, the survey suggests that even people in work have been hit harder than those in some other parts of the country.

The median salary for a full time worker in the UK rose by 0.3 per cent last year, bringing gross annual pay up to £25,879. This was a cut in real terms, when inflation is taken into account.

But salaries in the West Midlands also fell in cash terms, with median pay dropping by 0.2 per cent to £23,902.

It suggests that not only are incomes lower in the region than in some other parts of the UK, but the pay gap between the regions is growing, rather than falling. And a closer analysis of the figures shows that the pain was not shared equally.

The lowest paid ten per cent of workers in full time jobs were paid £13,271 or less in the West Midlands – a cut of 64 per cent compared to the previous year.

And those in the bottom 30 per cent were paid £18,316 or less – down £150 on the year before.