Earnings (Hansard, 26 March 1999)

§ Mr. Moore
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what is the percentage of full-time workers in(a) Scotland, (b) each unitary local authority area in Scotland and (c) Great Britain earning in terms of gross pay (A) including and (B) excluding overtime, less than (i) £261.46, (ii) £241.86, (iii) £181.40 and (iv) £136.44 per week for the categories (1) male manual, (2) male non-manual, (3) all male workers, (4) female manual (5) female non-manual, (6) all female workers, (7) all manual, (8) all non-manual and (9) all workers; [78241]
(2) if he will list the average gross weekly earnings (a) including overtime and (b) excluding overtime for full-time workers in (i) Scotland, (ii) each unitary local authority area in Scotland and (iii) Great Britain for (A) all manual, (B) all non-manual and (C) all workers. [78240]

§ Ms Hewitt
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Michael Moore, dated 26 March 1999:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary questions on average earnings.
The New Earnings Survey (NES) can provide earnings data for small geographical areas. However, the release of NES data is restricted to figures which are derived from a sufficiently large sample of employees, and have an acceptable level of accuracy. I have provided the available data for Scotland, the Scottish local authorities and Great Britain in the attached tables. These are based on the 1998 NES, the latest survey for which data are available. These tables are voluminous and copies of them are being placed in the Library of the House rather than reproduced in Hansard.
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.

§ Mr. Alasdair Morgan
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will list for(a) Scotland and (b) each local authority area in Scotland the (i) average weekly earnings, (ii) weekly median earnings and (iii) the distribution of earnings for those in (1) the lowest and (2) the highest decile broken down by (A) manual, (B) non-manual and (C) all workers; [77784]
450W
(2) if he will list the proportion of full-time workers in (a) Scotland, (b) each local authority area in Scotland and (c) Great Britain, with gross hourly earnings below (i) £6.90, (ii) £6.38, (iii) £4.79 and (iv) £3.60 broken down into (1) male, (2) female and (3) all (x) manual and (y) non-manual workers. [77785]

§ Ms Hewitt
[holding answers 23 March 1999]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Alasdair Morgan, dated 26 March 1999:
As the Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary questions on average earnings.
The New Earnings Survey (NES) can provide earnings data for small geographical areas. However, the release of NES data is restricted to figures which are derived from a sufficiently large sample of employees, and have an acceptable level of accuracy. I have provided the available data for Scotland, the Scottish local authorities and Great Britain in the attached tables. These are based on the 1998 NES, the latest survey for which data are available. These tables are voluminous and copies of them are being placed in the Library of the House rather than reproduced in Hansard.
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.