HC Deb 10 June 1974 vol 874 cc466-7W
Mr. Heseltine

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will set out average earnings in the following nationalised industries for each year since nationalisation: (1) the National Coal Board, (2) the Ceneal Electricity Generating Board, (3) the electricity boards, (4) the National Bus Company, (5) the Railways Board, (6) the British Steel Corporation, and (7) the gas boards.

Mr. Booth

For the National Coal Board and British Rail details for the years 1956–1968 of average weekly earnings of manual workers employed by these undertakings are set out in Table 50 of "British Labour Statistics: Historical Abstract 1886–1968". Comparable figures for adult male manual workers for later years are set out below.

Date Gas Electricity
October 1955 … … 10.35 10.41
October 1956 … … 11.06 11.17
October 1957 … … 11.73 11.87
October 1958 … … 12.00 12.39
October 1959 … … 12.26 12.85
October 1960 … … 13.42 14.50
October 1961 … … 13.75 14.54
October 1962 … … 14.49 15.58
October 1963 … … 16.07 16.70
October 1964 … … 17.05 18.35
October 1965 … … 19.06 18.31
October 1966 … … 19.83 19.00
October 1967 … … 20.83 19.72
October 1968 … … 22.33 20.25
October 1969 … … 24.45 21.92
October 1970 … … 28.02 25.33
October 1971 … … 31.37 30.82
October 1972 … … 35.40 35.66
October 1973 … … 39.61 40.57

Mr. Heseltine

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish the index of manufacturing wages and earnings for each of the years from 1948.

Mr. Booth

Following is the information:

INDICES OF EARNINGS AND COMPARABLE WAGE RATES 1948–73
FULL-TIME MANUAL WORKERS
EACH YEAR—UNITED KINGDOM—AVERAGE 1956=100
Manufacturing Industries
Average weekly earnings Basic weekly wage rates
Date Men Women Men Women
October:
1948 … … … 58.8 61.4 66.2 63.9
1949 … … … 60.7 65.0 67.2 65.5
1950 … … … 64.2 68.1 67.7 66.3
1951 … … … 70.6 74.1 74.8 74.4
1952 … … … 75.7 79.4 80.6 79.9
1953 … … … 80.6 84.7 84.1 84.3
1954 … … … 87.0 89.4 88.4 88.9
1955 … … … 94.7 95.1 94.2 94.3
1956 … … … 100.7 101.5 101.3 101.7
1957 … … … 107.1 106.8 106.8 107.0
1958 … … … 108.8 110.4 110.4 111.0
1959 … … … 115.3 116.1 111.4 112.7
1960 … … … 123.0 121.8 114.0 116.1
1961 … … … 128.9 126.7 118.6 120.2
1962 … … … 132.6 131.9 123.0 126.1
1963 … … … 140.3 138.2 125.1 129.0
1964 … … … 151.4 147.0 131.5 137.1
1965 … … … 163.6 157.7 136.9 144.3
1966 … … … 168.6 165.3 142.5 152.0
1967 … … … 177.6 173.2 149.5 158.5
1968 … … … 191.6 185.9 158.7 168.2
1969 … … … 207.2 199.2 167.8 175.1
1970 … … … 234.6 229.9 187.3 196.9
1971 … … … 254.5 259.8 207.1 226.3
1972 … … … 293.7 301.7 245.6 266.7
1973 … … … 336.9 348.0 273.5 306.1

The Standard Industrial Classification 1958 was introduced in October 1959 and the Standard Industrial Classification 1968 in October 1969. In each case the coverage of this table was affected, but only marginally, and the indices have been linked to take account of this factor.

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