§ Mr. Shinwellasked the Minister of Labour if he will state the number of persons engaged in industry, agriculture and distribution over the age of 18 years whose basic wage is less than £10 weekly.
§ Mr. HareI regret that comprehensive figures are not available. In October, 1960, my Department held an inquiry into the distribution of earnings of 5,914,000 full-time adult manual workers in the productive industries and certain services. Of the 4,872,000 men included in the inquiry 468,000 or 9.6 per cent. earned less than £10 in the week of the inquiry; of the 1,042,000 women concerned 908,000 or 87.1 per cant. earned less than £10. In the year ending March, 1961, the average weekly earnings of 138,000 hired regular whole-time men in agriculture, i.e. 48 per cent. of all such workers, were less than £10 111W per week. Information about the distribution of earnings in distributive trades is not available.