§ Mr. Fosterasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is his estimate of the change in the wage rates since the raising of the school leaving age of 16 to 18-year-olds expressed as a percentage of the adult rate, for males and females and for manual and non-manual occupations.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 16 July 1980, c. 558]: The available information relates to basic weekly earnings—that is, gross weekly earnings exclusive of overtime earnings, payments by results and similar incentive earnings and shift and son on, premium payments. The following table expresses the basic earnings of full-time employees aged under 18 as a percentage of those of full-time employees aged 18 and over. Changes in this percentage may reflect changes in occupational and industrial composition of the labour force as well as changes in the rates payable.
not available on any regular or consistent basis. The Government do not believe that it is either appropriate or in the interest of the ethnic minorities to seek to introduce special measures exclusively for them. However, particular attention is paid by the Manpower Services Commission to the way in which its special programmes are operated so as to ensure that the needs of the ethnic minorities are taken fully into account.