§ Mr. G. LOCKER-LAMPSONasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was 2632W the estimated amount of the wages bill for the United Kingdom for each of the years 1913–19, inclusive, which was not liable to Income Tax?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAI have been asked to reply to this question. No statistics exist from which it is possible to compute the amount of the wages bill of the United Kingdom for each of the years 1913 to 1919. On the basis of available indications, however, it is estimated that the aggregate annual income of the wage-earning classes in the pre-war year probably amounted to between £800,000,000 and £850,000,000. In 1919, as compared with 1913, weekly rates of wages were on the average rather more than double, but other factors, such as changes in the numbers of persons employed in various industries, improvements in organisation, the movement of workpeople from low paid to higher paid occupations and from time work to piece work, and the results of short time and overtime, the effects of which on the average earnings in industries are not known, render it impracticable to give any useful estimate of the aggregate annual income of the wage-earners in years subsequent to 1913.