HC Deb 02 March 1982 vol 19 c104W
Mr. Rooker

asked the Secretary of State for Employment to what he attributes the decline in the proportion of weekly earnings of men manual workers in manufacturing industries in 1980 and 1981 compared with non-manual men in the same sector.

Mr. Peter Morrison

The decline in the proportion of average weekly earnings of men manual workers to those of men non-manual workers in manufacturing between April 1980 and April 1981, as shown in the results of the new earnings survey, was mainly due to a substantial fall in overtime hours worked by manual workers. For full-time manual men aged 21 and over, whose pay in the survey week was not affected by absence, average overtime hours fell by 1½ during this period, compared with a fall of about ½ hour for corresponding non-manual workers.

Mr. Rooker

asked the Secretary of State for Employment to what he attributes the decline in the proportion of weekly earnings by full-time women manual workers in all industries and services in 1981 compared with non-manual women workers in the same sector.

Mr. Peter Morrison

The decline in the proportion of average weekly earnings of full-time manual women to those of full-time non-manual women between April 1980 and April 1981, as recorded in the new earnings survey, mainly reflects a temporary change in the incidence of pay settlements during this period. A number of non-manual groups in the public services, where women form a substantial proportion of total employment, received more than one annual pay settlement in the 12 months to April 1981. For example, teachers received both the delayed 1980 pay settlement and the 1981 pay settlement, together with the final instalment of the staged award from the 1979 pay settlement.

Also, to the extent that non-manual workers tend to have pay settlement dates slightly later in the annual pay round than manual workers, the change in average earnings between April 1980 and April 1981 for non-manual workers will reflect relatively more settlements in the 1979–80 pay round, ending in July 1980, when pay settlements were higher than in the succeeding 1980–81 pay round.