§ Mr. Alasdair MorganTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will list for(a) Scotland, (b) each of the Scottish unitary authorities, the average weekly earnings and weekly median earnings for (i) manual workers, (ii) non-manual workers and (iii) all workers; [50972]
(2) if he will list for (a) Scotland, (b) each Scottish unitary authority and (c) Great Britain, the percentage of workers on adult rates of pay in part-time employment whose average hourly earnings (i) including and (ii) excluding overtime are less than (1) £4.61, (2) £6.15, (3) £6.60 and (4) average hourly earnings for (A) male manual, (B) male non-manual, (C) male, (D) female manual, (E) female non-manual, (F) female, (G) manual, (H) non-manual and (I) all workers; [50970]
(3) if he will list for (a) Scotland, (b) each Scottish unitary authority and (c) Great Britain the amount of average earnings in the (1) bottom and (2) top decile for (i) manual, (ii) non-manual and (iii) all workers; [50973]
(4) if he will list the average weekly earnings, (a) including and (b) excluding overtime, for part-time workers in (i) Scotland, (ii) each unitary local authority area in Scotland and (iii) Great Britain, broken down for (1) men and (2) women in (A) manual employment and (B) non-manual employment indicating the total figures for all workers. [50971]
506W
§ Mrs. Liddell[holding answer 20 July 1998]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Alasdair Morgan, dated 21 July 1998:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary questions (50970, 50971, 50972 and 50973) on earnings in the Scottish unitary local authority areas, Scotland and Great Britain.The information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost. There is a considerable amount of data (from the New Earnings Survey 1997) available in the House of Commons library. This includes various distribution ranges of hourly earnings excluding overtime, by location. Areas covered range from parliamentary constituencies and local authority districts to Government Office regions and Great Britain.
§ Mr. BarnesTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in Derbyshire currently earn less than the proposed national minimum wage, broken down by(a) gender, (b) age, (c) ethnic origin and (d) full or part-time employment. [51054]
§ Mrs. LiddellThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. 1 have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Harry Barnes, dated 21 July 1998:
507WAs the Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question on the estimated number of people in Derbyshire who earn less than the proposed minimum wage.The national minimum wage (NMW) will become effective in April 1999 and has been set at £3.60 for employees aged over 21. A development rate of £3.00 per hour will apply for employees aged 18 to 21. The proposals also include a provision for a rate of £3.20 which will apply to those over 21 years receiving accredited training during the first six months of a new job with a new employer, but we are unable to provide data on this. Workers aged 16 and 17 and all those on apprenticeships will be exempt.The Low Pay Commission, in arriving at their recommendations, had to adjust 1999 pay rates to 1997 values. Their methodology produces £3.40 and £2.80 as the 1997 values of the government's preferred rates and I have provided supplementary data for these levels.The New Earnings Survey (NES) does not collect information on the ethnic origin of employees, therefore figures for this element of the question cannot be given.The preferred method for assessing the coverage of the proposed NMW is to present adjusted NES and Labour Force Survey (LFS) data for the number of employees earning less than the proposed NMW rates. This method adjusts for the fact that the NES is based on a one per cent. sample of employees in the PAYE system and is therefore likely to under-represent relatively low paid staff, earning below the tax-threshold, and in particular those who work part-time. It is not possible to use this method for small areas and, where available, data, solely from the NES have been provided in the attached tables.The extent of the bias in the NES data may be estimated for the East Midlands by using the adjusted NES and LFS data for all employees. This suggests that the estimate of the overall proportion of full-time employees aged over 21 years earning below £3.60 could understate the true position by as much as 4 percentage points. However, because the bias has been estimated on the basis of all employees, it would be wise to treat this figure as broadly indicative rather than as a precise estimate for full-time employees.
Employees aged over 21 on adult rates, whose pay for the survey pay period was unaffected by absence Percentage with earnings less than £3.40 £3.60 Derby Unitary Authority Men Full-time 0.6 1.4 Part-time 1— 1— All 0.8 1.6 Women Full-time 5.5 8.7 Part-time 1— 1— All 1— 1— All Full-time 1.9 3.3 Part-time 1— 1— All 3.4 5.5 Derbyshire excluding Derby Unitary Authoriy Men Full-time 2.4 2.8 Part-time 1— 1— All 3.3 3.8 Women Full-time 5.3 7.2 Part-time 13.4 19.3 All 9.3 13.1 All Full-time 3.2 4.1 Part-time 14.6 20.3 All 5.9 7.9 Derbyshire including Derby Unitary Authority Men Full-time 1.8 2.4 Part-time 1— 1— All 2.5 3.1 Women Full-time 5.3 7.7 Part-time 13.2 19.2 All 8.9 13.0 All Full-time 2.8 3.9 Part-time 14.1 19.8 All 5.1 7.2
508W
Employees aged 18–21 on all rates of pay whose pay for the survey pay period was unaffected by absence Percentage with earnings less than £2.80 £3.00 Derby Unitary Authority Men Full-time 1— 1— Part-time 1— 1— All 1— 1— Women Full-time 1— 1— Part-time 1— 1— All 1— 1— All Full-time 1— 1— Part-time 1— 1— All 5.9 5.9
Employees aged 18–21 on all rates of pay whose pay for the survey pay period was unaffected by absence Percentage with earnings less than £2.80 £3.00 Derbyshire excluding Derby Unitary Authority Men Full-time 1— 1— Part-time 1— 1— All 1— 1— Women Full-time 1— 1— Part-time 1— 1— All 1— 1— All Full-time 8.7 10.9 Part-time 1— 1— All 8.5 10.2 Derbyshire excluding Derby Unitary Authority Men Full-time 8.5 10.6 Part-time 1— 1— All 6.8 8.5 Women Full-time 1— 1— Part-time 1— 1— All 1— 1— All Full-time 8.7 10.1 Part-time 1— 1— All 7.5 8.6 1Denotes that a reliable estimate is not available Source:
New Earnings Survey, April 1997 (GB)