§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment, further to his reply to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North, Official Report, 3 December, c. 219, if he will now update on the basis of the April 1980 new earnings survey the cost of a national minimum wage at £1.50 for adults given in his earlier reply dated 9 July 1980 c. 165.
§ Mr. Jim LesterBased on the new earnings survey for April 1980, the direct addition to the national wage bill caused by raising the pay of full-time workers—those working over 30 hours a week or more—over 18 who are paid less than £1.50 an hour up to that level is estimated to be £550 million. This represents an increase of about 0.4 per cent.
A separate estimate for the public sector can be made only for men aged over 21 and women aged over 18. The direct cost of a national minimum wage for all such full-time workers in the public sector is estimated, on the basis of the NES for April 1980, to be £68 million or 0.2 per cent.
These estimates make no provision for the direct costs of raising the pay of part-time workers nor for the indirect or repercussive efforts of a minimum wage, which could be considerable.
§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment, further to his reply to the hon. Member for Norfolk, North, Official Report, 6 August 1980, c. 116, if he will now update on the basis of the April 1980 new earnings survey his estimate of the cost of employing all the adult unemployed at a national minimum wage of £1.50 an hour and assuming a 40-hour week.
§ Mr. Jim LesterOn the same assumptions that were used in replying to my hon. Friend's question, including 279W benefit levels of £26.50; the net cost of paying all those adults registered as unemployed in Great Britain in October 1980 a national minimum wage of £1.50 an hour on a 40-hour week would be £1,047 million.