HC Deb 02 November 1989 vol 159 cc305-6W
Mrs. Mahon

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the employers who have indicated that they are employing young people whom they would not otherwise have employed because of the removal of young people from wages council protection in 1986.

Mr. Nicholls

It is not this Department's practice to disclose the authorship of correspondence that it receives.

Mrs. Mahon

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what, in percentage terms, was young workers' pay relative to their adult counterparts in each year from 1979 to 1989.

Mr. Nicholls

The information from the new earnings survey is provided in the table:

Earnings of those aged under 18 as a percentage of the earnings of those aged 18 and over
Percentage
1979 43.7
1980 43.0
1981 42.9

Percentage
1982 42.4
1983 40.1
1984 38.8
1985 39.8
1986 39.6
1987 40.0
1988 40.8
1989 40.0

Note: Average gross weekly earnings of all full-time employees working a full week, April of each year.