HC Deb 28 January 1971 vol 810 cc792-3
10. Mr. James Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what arrangements he has made to enter into wage negotiations involving workers eligible for Family Incomes Supplement to ensure that wages will be increased substantially enough to save public expenditure on the supplement in relation to all save the largest families.

The Under-Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. David Howell)

None, Sir.

Mr. Hamilton

Will the hon. Gentleman persuade his right hon. Friend, in setting up the committees he is establishing at his Department, to give one of them the job of finding out where these lower-paid workers are and in what industries they are employed? Does not the hon. Gentleman agree that it is morally wrong to ask the taxpayers to subsidise employers who are paying wages which are, to all intents and purposes, below the living level? If such workers go on strike for justifiable wage increases, will the hon. Gentleman give an assurance that, contrary to previous practice, the Government will make pronouncements aimed at the betterment of those workers' conditions?

Mr. Howell

I take note of what the hon. Gentleman said. But I do not agree that the Family Incomes Supplement represents a subsidy by the taxpayers of lower-paid workers. We expect the supplement to affect only a small percentage of households.

Mr. J. H. Osborn

Does it not mean that the higher wage and salary earners must contemplate a reduction because of the position of average income in this country?

Mr. Howell

I am afraid that I am not clear about the point my hon. Friend is making, but it is true that, as long as there are real differentials, so long will there be lower-paid workers and a lower-paid workers' problem.

Mr. John Fraser

Will the hon. Gentleman give an assurance that, when a wage claim is made to bring a person's wage up to at least £15 a week, the Department will support it, because it is a claim for a sum at which people can barely live, and that it will not lean on the unions to take less?

Mr. Howell

As a general proposition, I cannot support something which might refer to a particular situation. If the hon. Gentleman is talking of the idea of a national minimum wage, then that is something which the Government are considering.