§ 55. Mr. Osborneasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer by approximately how much coal and food prices have risen since 1938; and what have been the respective wage increases paid to coal-miners and agricultural workers.
§ Sir A. SalterBetween 1938 and March, 1952, retail prices of domestic coal increased, on the average, by about102W 130 per cent. and retail prices of all foods increased by about 120 per cent. In the third quarter of 1951, average earnings of all coalminers, including the value of allowances in kind, were slightly more than three times their average earnings in 1938. No figures are available of the actual earnings of agricultural workers in 1938. Their minimum wage rates are now, on the average, just over three times as high as they were in 1938.