§ Mrs. Chalkerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give comparisons of the basic hourly wage rates and average earnings in 1974 for the North-West and Merseyside, with similar figures for 1973 and the national rate.
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§ Mr. BoothAverage wage rates are not compiled nationally, regionally or locally. The new Earnings Survey results include the following estimates of average hourly earnings of full-time manual men aged 21 and over whose pay for the survey pay period was not affected by absence. These estimates exclude the effects of overtime pay and overtime hours and are subject to sampling error. Unfortunately, the estimates for the North-West and Merseyside do not relate to quite the same areas in 1973 and 1974.
April 1973 April 1974 Merseyside* 84.8p 95.0p North West Region† 78.2p 90.3p Great Britain 79.2p 91.1p * The 1973 estimate relates to the Merseyside conurbation as then defined. The 1974 estimate relates to the new metropolitan county. † The 1973 estimate relates to the standard region as then defined—Cheshire, Derbyshire (High Peak district) and Lancashire. The 1974 estimate relates to the redefined region—the new counties of Cheshire and Lancashire and the Greater Manchester and Merseyside metropolitan counties.