§ Mr. Martenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish the index of real take-home pay of the average industrial worker from 1945 to date, taking 1945–46 as 100.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 29 March 1979; Vol. 965, c. 351], gave the following answer:
The figures below show the real net income of the average industrial worker from 1945–46 to 1978–79. Net income has been used in preference to take-home pay because net income includes family allowance and child benefit, and therefore 931W takes account of the transition from child tax allowances to tax-free child benefit.
Index of real net income of the average industrial worker (1945–46=100) 1945–46 100 1946–47 103 1947–48 104 1948–49 105 1949–50 105 1950–51 106 1951–52 108 1952–53 112 1953–54 117 1954–55 122 1955–56 129 1956–57 132 1957–58 133 1958–59 132 1959–60 139 1960–61 145 1961–62 144 1962–63 143 1963–64 149 1964–65 153 1965–66 154 1966–67 153 1967–68 155 1968–69 155 1969–70 157 1970–71 160 1971–72 163 1972–73 177 1973–74 177 1974–75 177 1975–76 168 1976–77 165 1977–78 166 1978–79 177 These figures assume a married man with two children not over 11, wife not working.
Average industrial earnings have been taken to be the annual equivalents of the average weekly earnings of full-time male manual workers.
For 1945–46 they relate to July. From 1946–47 to 1969–70 they relate to October (for the annual survey of the earnings of manual workers). From 1970–71 they are calculated for the new earnings survey, as the average of the survey figures for April at the beginning and end of each financial year. For 1978–79, the April 1978 figure has been updated to October 1978.
Net income is defined as earnings less tax and national insurance contributions, plus any family allowance or child benefit where appropriate. It excludes other sources of income, on which information relating to manual workers taken separately is not available.
The national insurance contributions are those of a manual adult male who 932W was "not contracted out" of the graduated pension scheme or the earnings related pension scheme.
"Real net income" allows for the effect of changes in prices using the index of prices of consumer goods and services for each Financial year based on table 2 of the CSO publication "The Internal Purchasing Power of the Pound". In recent years, this is based on the general retail prices index. Use of the index for the financial year is more appropriate than use of that for the calendar year, as given in table 2 of the CSO's publication.