§ Mr. Gregory CampbellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average industrial wage in Great Britain is. [175854]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Gregory Campbell, dated 27 May 2004:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking for the average industrial wage in Great Britain. (175854)
Average earnings are estimated from the 2003 New Earnings Survey (NES) and are provided for full-time employees on adult rates of pay whose pay was unaffected by absence during the pay period, by their place of work. This is the standard definition used for NES tables. The NES does not collect data on the self employed and people who do unpaid work.
The 2003 NES estimates that the total average industrial weekly earnings of full-time adult employees in Great Britain was £469.00.
The industrial wage covers all Production, Distribution and Service sectors of the economy. More detailed information on earnings is available in the published tables from the 2003 NES. They are available on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_labour/NES2003Analyses_By_Industry/NES2003_Analyses_By_Industry.pdf
The NES, carried out in April of each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in Great Britain. It is a one per cent. sample of all employees who are members of pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) schemes but, because of its sampling frame, 1725W it has difficulty capturing data on people with very low pay. It is therefore likely to under-represent relatively low paid staff earning below the tax threshold.
The New Earnings Survey publication criteria ensures that all estimates are undisclosive and of reliable quality. A number of estimates have been removed from the published tables for these reasons.