§ Mr. Jim MurphyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the impact on tax revenues of the national minimum wage. [101304]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 6 December 1999]: The Government have provided evidence to the Low Pay Commission, which is due to report by the end of the year on the initial impact of the National Minimum Wage. A copy of this evidence is available in the House of Commons Library.
§ Mr. Jim MurphyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many people he estimates have benefited from the national minimum wage in(a) Scotland, (b) Wales, (c) Bristol, (d) Greater London, (e) Cornwall, (f) the West Country and (g) Cumbria; [101302]:
(2) how many public sector workers have benefited from the national minimum wage. [101303]
(3) how many unskilled workers he estimates have benefited from the national minimum wage. [101306]
(4) how many families he estimates have benefited from the national minimum wage. [101305]
636W
§ Miss Melanie Johnson[holding answers 6 December 1999]The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Jim Murphy, dated 9 December 1999:
The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to reply to your four recent parliamentary questions about people who have benefited from the national minimum wage. I am replying in Dr. Holt's absence.Definitive estimates on the number of people that have benefited from the national minimum wage are not yet available. Currently available estimates for assessing the effect take data from both the New Earnings Survey and the Labour Force Survey and adjust them for known limitations in each. However, the latest adjusted estimates are based on data for the spring (March—May) 1999 Labour Force Survey and this period spans the introduction date for the national minimum wage legislation. As a result, the adjusted estimates may be giving a misleading picture of the effect of the minimum wage legislation since employees might legitimately have been earning below the minimum wage rates in March 1999.The currently available estimates were published in an ONS First Release on 14 October and show that the number of people earning below the minimum wage rates fell significantly between 1998 and 1999. A copy of this first release will be available in the House of Commons Library.