Wages (Hansard, 16 February 1993)

§ 4. Mr. Chisholm
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the average weekly wage for (a) men and (b) women.

§ The Minister of State, Department of Employment (Mr. Michael Forsyth)
The figures are £346.70 and £247.10. respectively.

§ Mr. Chisholm
That is appalling as it stands, but will the Minister tell us whether it includes workers below the national insurance threshold? Will he also tell us—given that a major factor in the gender gap is the concentration of women in low-paid employment—why the Government are deliberately widening that gap by abolishing wages councils? Is not it time that they did something to help low-paid women by extending the power and scope of wages councils, strengthening the Equal Pay Act 1970 and providing more child care facilities to which such women can have access?

§ Mr. Forsyth
I note the hon. Gentleman's opposition to the abolition of wages councils. I am not sure that he was a leading opponent of their abolition when the Labour Government abolished 11 of them.
The hon. Gentleman might like to know that average female earnings rose by 48 per cent. in real terms between 1979 and 1992. That is three times the rate of growth under Labour.

§ Mr. Bill Walker
Will my hon. Friend confirm that it is important to be price-competitive when recession and unemployment are increasing everywhere? We certainly do not want to price ourselves out of jobs—especially in my hon. Friend's constituency and mine, where the tourist industry is a big employer.

§ Mr. Forsyth
I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. He is right to point out that wages councils destroy jobs. If we were to adopt the Opposition's policy and opt for some form of minimum wage, instead of having the highest proportion of the female work force in employment, we might find ourselves in the same position as Spain, where nearly a quarter of the female population is out of work. Spain is one of the two countries in Europe with a statutory national minimum wage.

§ Ms. Quin
Will the Minister confirm that the gap between men's and women's wages is far less in the sectors covered by wages councils than it is in other sectors? Is not that a strong argument for retaining wages councils, rather than abolishing them?
Will the Minister also comment on the scandalous position of young workers who were taken out of wages councils by the Government and whose wages are now very low? My local job centre, for instance, is advertising a job for an apprentice hairdresser aged between 16 and 20. The pay is £35–60 for a 38-hour week—in other words, 93p an hour. Can the Government describe that as a decent wage for a week's work?

§ Mr. Forsyth
It was precisely that attitude which was responsible for the destruction of so many apprenticeships in this country. It seems that the hon. Lady would like to have people with no jobs and no apprenticeships in return for having a national minimum wage. I should be much more impressed by the hon. Lady and the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson), who is so vocal on the Opposition Front Bench about the abolition of wages councils, if they were to tell the House that after this House has abolished wages councils a future Labour Government would bring them back. The hon. Lady has consistently refused to do so because she recognises that wages councils are an anachronism which cover a mere 10 per cent. of the work force.