HC Deb 28 March 1994 vol 240 cc575-6W
Mr. Morley

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if she will show the average income of(a) farmers and (b) farm workers in (i) cash and (ii) real terms, using 1985 as a constant, in each year since 1980 showing these incomes as a percentage of the average wage.

Mr. Jack

Estimates of the earnings of hired agricultural full-time workers in England are obtained from the earnings and hours survey and the wages and employment inquiry prior to 1991. These figures are given in the table. Figures for 1980 are not available separately for England.

None of the estimates of average farm income is comparable with the average wage. The table presents estimates of cash income for 1986–87 onwards. Estimates for previous years are not available on a consistent basis.

Earnings of hired full-time workers in England
Year Estimated annual cash income average all types of farm(incL hort)1 Current terms2 Real terms 1985 prices23 Percentage of average wage4
(£'000sper farm) (£ per week) (£ per week)
1981 5— 90.72 115.40 79.65
1982 5— 99.97 116.59 80.30
1983 5— 110.97 124.84 83.62
1984 5— 117.02 125.15 81.83
1985 5— 128.72 128.72 84.13
1986 14.4 135.66 132.33 83.13
1987 14.4 143.89 134.71 82.93
1988 12.7 151.37 135.47 80.86
1989 30.2 164.29 135.82 80.85
1990 32.2 182.43 137.36 82.47
1991 32.5 201.89 143.73 85.47
1992 37.1 208.16 142.56 83.03
1993 5— 214.02 144.81 83.41
1 Accounting years end, on average, in February of the following year. Cash income represents the cash return to with an entrepreneurial Interest in the business: farmers and spouses, non-principal partners and directors and their spouses and farm workers for their manual and managerial labour and on all their investment in the business. Source: farm business survey.
2 Includes payments for basic, overtime and holiday hours, plus value of annual bonus, perquisites and other payments. It also includes the value of employer's contributions to employee's council tax.
3 Deflated by the all items RPI.
4 Average earnings of full time manual employees on adult rates—prior to 1983 men aged 21+ and women aged 18+—in all industries and services in Great Britain, whose pay was not affected by absence for the survey period. Source: new earnings survey.
5 Figures not available.