§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a table showing how the earnings of the lowest paid 10 per cent. of male and female workers have changed relative to average male and female earnings since the introduction of pay policy on 12th July 1975.
§ Mr. John Grant:The annual new earnings survey provides information on the distribution of earnings of full-time adult employees for April only. It relates to those whose pay for the survey reference pay-period was not affected by absence and is subject to sampling errors. The survey sample is not fully representative of part-time and young employees. The ratios of the lowest decile to the median in the survey distributions for those aged 18 and over have been:
Full-time employees Males Females April 1975 65.2 67.4 April 1976 65.5 66.1 April 1977 66.0 68.6 April 1978 64.6 69.1