Mr. Creech Jonesasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, taking the estimated extra cost of equal pay for non-industrial civil servants of both sexes, discharging work of equal value, he will state its percentage in relation to the total actual cost of Civil Service remuneration?
§ Captain WallaceThe Royal Commission on the Civil Service (1929–31) quoted in paragraph 455 of its report an approximate estimate of £3,000,000 a year as the cost of the grant of "equal pay" when in full operation. At that time the total cost of the salaries and wages of nonindustrial civil servants was somewhat under £70,000,000 a year. The cost of "equal pay" thus represented rather over 4 per cent. of the total salaries and wages bill. Of recent years, as part of the general increase in Civil Service staffs, there has been an increase in the number of women employed. On the other hand the effect of the Whitley Council Agreement of June, 1937, was to reduce in a number of cases the differentiation at the maximum between the scales of men and women in grades where there is common recruitment and where common conditions of employment obtain. There have also been certain other factors which affect the position and a revised estimate would probably show some increase in the figure of £3,000,000, but not materially out of proportion to the revised total salaries and wages bill.