HC Deb 15 March 1962 vol 655 cc177-8W
Sir J. Barlow

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the percentage rise in real terms in wages and salary earnings and in ordinary dividends, respectively, since 1938.

Mr. Brooke

Complete figures for 1961 are not yet available, but between 1938 and 1960 total wages and salaries rose by 384 per cent. and total gross ordinary dividends by 190 per cent. The latter figure has been adjusted to exclude dividends paid in 1938 by companies subsequently nationalised. The corresponding increases, allowing for changes in the purchasing power of the pound as measured by the consumers' price index, were 71 per cent. for wages and salaries and 2 per cent. for ordinary dividends.