HC Deb 21 October 1953 vol 518 c1962
28. Sir L. Plummer

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the average daily wage rate for labourers or general workers employed by the Public Works Department of the British Guiana Government.

Mr. Lyttelton

Exact information is not readily available here, but the rates approximate to those for unskilled workers generally. At the end of 1952 the minimum daily wage for unskilled workers in Georgetown was $2.09 (8s. 8½d.) and for rural areas $1.76 (7s. 4d.). The corresponding rates for female unskilled workers were $1.54 (6s. 5d) a day in Georgetown and $1.32 (5s. 6d.) a day for the rural areas.

Sir H. Williams

Can my right hon. Friend express this rate in terms of a currency with which we are more familiar than dollars, namely, groundnuts in East Africa?