HC Deb 24 October 1966 vol 734 c100W
Mr. Dickens

asked the Minister of Labour if he will state the number of adult workers earning less than £10 per week, £10 but less than £11, and £11 but less than £12, indicating separately the numbers of male and female workers and the number of wage and salary earners, and giving the date of the most recent estimate.

Mrs. Shirley Williams

The most recent estimates are for 1965, when the numbers of full-time adult workers in these ranges of weekly earnings were as follows:

Men Women
Under £10 200,000 2,700,000
£10 but under £11 300,000 600,000
£11 but under £12 500,000 400,000

The figures are derived from information provided by the 3,400 households which were included in the Family Expenditure Survey in 1965. They are subject to margins of sampling error which may range from about 50,000 either way on the smallest figure up to about 200,000 on the largest. The sample is not large enough to divide the men in the lowest earnings ranges between wage and salary earners, but of all those earning less than £12 a week about 90 per cent. of the men and about two-thirds of the women were wage earners.