§ Mr. Lawsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to the Written Answer to the hon. Member for Blaby, Official Report, 30th November, c. 259–60, what is the explanation of the apparent 11¼ per cent. increase on the real weekly take-home pay of the average married man between March and June of 1970.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 12th December 1977; Vol. 941, c. 76], gave the following information:
The figures for months up to and including March 1970 and those for later months given in my reply to the hon. Member on 30th November reflect the different coverage of the estimates of average earnings used. The New Earnings Survey, which covers all occupations, manual and non-manual, was first carried out in April 1970, and for earlier months the best available estimate of average earnings is derived from the Department of Employment's October survey, which covered only manual workers. The footnote to my earlier reply was intended to cover this point, but I regret that, due to a transcription error, in the first line the year 1969 was shown incorrectly as 1960.
On the basis of the estimated earnings of manual workers, real weekly take-home pay in June 1970 was £55.20 per week at September 1977 prices, and real weekly net income £57.49.