HC Deb 22 July 1977 vol 935 cc773-5W
Mr. Ridley

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish estimates of the standard of living of the average industrial worker in the form of an annual index from 1945 to the present day, indicating break periods caused by redefinitions of the index where appropriate.

Mr. Robert Sheldon

There is no commonly accepted measure of the "standard of living". The figures below show the real take-home pay of the average industrial worker from 1945–46 to 1976–77:

Index of real take-home pay of the average industrial worker (1945–46=100)
1945–46 … … … 100
1946–47 … … … 105
1947–48 … … … 106
1948–49 … … … 105
1949–50 … … … 106

product at market prices are given in the table below:

1950–51 … … … 108
1951–52 … … … 109
1952–53 … … … 112
1953–54 … … … 117
1954–55 … … … 124
1955–56 … … … 130
1956–57 … … … 133
1957–58 … … … 134
1958–59 … … … 132
1959–60 … … … 138
1960–61 … … … 145
1961–62 … … … 145
1962–63 … … … 144
1963–64 … … … 150
1964–65 … … … 154
1965–66 156
1966–67 … … … 155
1967–68 … … … 156
1968–69 … … … 158
1969–70 … … … 159
1970–71 … … … 163
1971–72 … … … 166
1972–73 … … … 180
1973–74 … … … 179
1974–75 … … … 183
1975–76 … … … 175
1976–77 … … … 169

These figures assume a married man with two children not over 11, wife not working.

Average industrial earnings have been taken to be the annual equivalents of the average weekly earnings of full-time male manual workers in October of each year, except for 1945–46 where they related to July.

"Take-home pay" is defined as earnings less tax and national insurance contributions, plus any family allowance or child benefit where appropriate. It excludes other sources of income, on which information relating to manual workers taken separately is not available.

The national insurance contributions are those of a manual adult male who was "not contracted out" of the graduated pension scheme in years prior to 1975–76.

"Real take-home pay" allows for the effect of changes in prices using the index of prices of consumer goods and services for each calendar year, taken from Table 2 of the CSO publication "The Internal Purchasing Power of the Pound".