HC Deb 15 December 1981 vol 15 cc85-6W
46. Mr. Colvin

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people in Great Britain today are paid in cash and on less than a monthly basis.

Mr. Waddington

The Government do not collect statistics on how frequently or by what means wages are paid. However, information collected by the Inter-Bank Research Organisation in 1979 and published in the recent CPRS report "Cashless Pay—alternatives to cash in payment of wages" is as follows:

Methods by which the wages of British employees were paid in 1979
Manual Non-manual All employees
per cent. per cent. per cent.
Cash
weekly in cash 77 78 34 35 53 54
monthly in cash 1 1 1
Non-cash
weekly by bank credit 7 21 6 65 6 45
weekly by cheque 6 4 5
monthly by bank credit 5 43 25
monthly by cheque 3 12 9
TOTAL 100 100 100

Source: IBRO.

Note: The totals include very small numbers of staff paid by transfer into accounts other than bank accounts (notably building society accounts), and therefore not included in the itemised figures.