§ 46. Mr. John Leeasked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity if she will publish annually the list of all the classified occupations with the percentages by which the highest wage or salary for each occupation exceeds the lowest; and if she will also state what proposals she has to reduce the difference between the two levels in those cases where this difference is excessive.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerInformation about the spread of gross weekly and hourly earnings of full-time men and women, analysed by occupation, was obtained in the new earning survey which was recently conducted by my Department and will be found in the May, 1969, and July, 1969, issues of the Employment and Productivity Gazette. Such information from surveys of this type should becomes available annually in future.
Improvement of the position of those with low incomes is an important object- 376W tive of incomes policy, but in many occupations there are good reasons for a substantial spread of earnings reflecting differences in work performed.