52. Miss Wardasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many points the salary rates for women in the Civil Service, teachers and local government service rose between December, 1951, and 1952; and what were the comparable figures for men in the same professions.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerI can give my hon. Friend only the percentage increases. Between December, 1951, and 1952, Civil Service rates for both men and women were generally increased by 10 per cent. on the first £500 of pay, 5 per cent. on the second and 2½ per cent. on the third. I understand that the increase received by women qualified teachers was about 9.5 per cent. at the minimum and 6.4 per cent. at the maximum of the basic scale. Corresponding figures for men were about 10.6 per cent. and 6.4 per cent. No figure can be given for local government staffs generally, but I understand that increases in the basic general and clerical grades for both men and women were about 5 to 6 per cent.
Miss WardWill my right hon. Friend agree that increases in certain commodities such as coal, and light and heat, and certain foodstuffs, bear more hardly on women than on men in the Civil Service, in the teaching profession, and in the local government service—[HON. MEMBERS: "Why?"]—and will he kindly, therefore, give them the same facilities for meeting those increased costs as he has given in industry, where women's rates have risen higher than the men's?
§ Mr. ButlerI am aware that there have been certain increases. It is also the fact that for a long time the Government have 1910 held the cost of living down. It is further the case that men feel some of these increases just as much as women.
§ Mr. BottomleyWould the right hon. Gentleman not agree that the best way of overcoming all these difficulties would be by granting equal pay at once?