§ Mr. TrickettTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what is his estimate of the number of people living in(a) Wakefield District and (b) West Yorkshire who will benefit from the introduction of a minimum wage; and what proportion of the employed population in each area this number represents; [74042]
(2) what is his estimate of the number of people who will benefit from the introduction of a minimum wage, living in the Hemsworth constituency; and what proportion of the employed population this represents. [74038]
§ Ms HewittThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Jon Trickett, dated 3 March 1999:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary questions on the number of people who will benefit from the introduction of the proposed national minimum wage (NMW).The precise information you request is unavailable. The New Earnings Survey (NES) collects information for the employee's work address, and so can only provide estimates for those who work, not live, in a particular area. The NES also provides estimates of the percentage of those earning below specified earnings thresholds, rather than numbers, because appropriate grossing factors for NES sample are not available at very detailed levels of disaggregation. The release of NES data is restricted to figures which are derived from a sufficiently large sample and which have an acceptable level of accuracy. Accordingly, no estimates for the parliamentary constituency of Hemsworth can be given.The available information, from the 1998 NES, is provided in the table below. It provides an historical position against the 1998 values of the proposed NMW, and makes no judgment on whether its introduction will have any effect on the number of jobs.
Employees, whose pay for the survey period was unaffected by absence. Hourly pay excluding overtime and shift pay (£), April 1998: Percentage aged 18 to 21 on all rates earning less £2.90 Percentage aged 22 and over on adult rates earning less £3.50 Hemsworth 1— 1— Wakefield Local Authority 1— 5.5 West Yorkshire 4.4 4.5 1Denotes that a reliable estimate is not available