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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