§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras, South, if he will give the figures for the average wages or salaries per head of household for one and two-parent families showing separately the figures for those in (a) full time, (b) part-time employment and (c) not employed, showing in each case the total income per head of household.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 2 December 1980]: Information is not readily available in the precise detail requested. However the following table sets out the available information from the family expenditure survey for 1979.
£1.60 £1.70 Approx. Cost £870m £1,300m Percentage increase in wages bill 0.7% 1.0% Separate estimates for the public sector can be made only for men aged over 21 and women aged over 18. The direct costs of a national minimum wage for all such full.time workers in the public sector are estimated, on the basis of the NES for April 1980, to be:
£1.60 £1.70 Approx. Cost £120m £200m Percentage increase in public sector wages bill 0.3% 0.5% These estimates make no provision for the direct costs of raising the pay of part-time workers nor for the indirect or repercussive effects of a minimum wage which could be considerable.