§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the average minimum wage for a 39-hour week in retail non-food shops (a) in London and (b) outside London for (i) 19-year-olds, (ii) 18-year-olds, (iii) 17-year-olds and (iv) those aged under 17 years at the latest available date.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe minimum weekly rates of pay for employees at various ages covered by the Retail Trades (Non-Food) Wages Council (Great Britain) Wages Order are shown on page 172 of the regularly updated publication, "Time Rates of Wages and Hours of Work" (Department of Employment), a copy of which is in the Library.
§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he has any information on the approximate changes in the level of wages of cleaners since the abolition of the fair wages resolution in 1983.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyNo. The fair wages resolution applied only to workers, other than cleaners, on Government contracts. Terms and conditions of cleaners on Government contracts were dealt with under separate Treasury arrangements.
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§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Employment what percentage of (a) retail food shops and (b) retail non-food shops visited by wages inspectors were found to be illegally underpaying their staff in 1982, 1983 and 1984, respectively.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe information requested is given in the following table:
1982 Per cent. 1983 Per cent. 1984 Per cent. Percentage of establishments covered by the Retail Food Trade Wages Council visited by Wages Inspectors and found to be underpaying one or more workers 43.9 45.9 43.9 Percentage of establishments covered by the Retail Non Food Trades Wages Council visited by Wages Inspectorsand found to be underpaying one or more workers 36–1 38.0 38.8 These figures cannot be taken as an indication of the general level of compliance with wages councils orders as the inspectorate tends to concentrate visits on establishments which are more likely to be underpaying.
A better indication of the overall level of compliance is the extent to which workers are found to be paid less than the legal minimum. This is shown for the retail trades in the table below:
Workers 1982 Per cent. 1983 Per cent. 1984 Per cent. percentage of workers in the retail food trade whose pay was checked by all methods who were found to have been underpaid 9.7 6.7 3.3 Perpercentage of workers in the retail non-food trade whose pay was checked by all methods who were found to have been underpaid 5.2 3.1 3.3 These figures compare favourably with the picture for Great Britain as a whole where the proportions were 6.2 per cent, 6.3 per cent. and 4.3 per cent. in 1982, 1983 and 1984 respectively.
§ Mr. Skinnerasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the average minimum wage for a 39-hour week in retail food shops in (a) London and (b) outside London for (i) 19-year-olds, (ii) 18-year-olds, (iii) 17-year-olds and (iv) those aged under 17 years at the latest available date.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe minimum weekly rates of pay for employees at various ages covered by the Retail Food and Allied Trades Wages Council (Great Britain) Wages Order are shown on page 168 of the regularly updated publication, "Time Rates of Wages and Hours of Work" (Department of Employment), a copy of which is in the Library.