§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the (i) number and (ii) proportion of people in work who were below the(a) lower earnings limit and (b) the tax threshold for each of the last 30 years. [112154]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe 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. Frank Field, dated 2 March 2000:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question about the people earning below the lower earnings limit and the tax threshold for the last thirty years.The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the ONS's major source of labour market data on individuals. It can provide information on the earnings of employees and the number and proportion of employees earning below (a) the lower earnings limit for National Insurance contributions and (b) the tax threshold. This information is given in the attached table.The LFS provides fuller coverage of people on low pay than another major source of earnings data, the New Earnings Survey (NES), and is the most appropriate source of data to answer this question. However, data on earnings in the LFS are only available from the winter (December to February) 1992/3 quarter onwards. The table gives data for autumn (September to November) quarters from 1992 to 1999. The data are for Great Britain and are not seasonally adjusted.
347W
Employees with gross weekly earnings1 below the National Insurance lower earnings limit and the tax threshold
Great Britain, autumn quarters 1993 to 1999, not seasonally
adjusted
Autumn quarters Weekly limit (£) Thousands Proportion of all employees2 National Insurance lower earnings limit 1993 56 2,340 10.9 1994 57 2,191 10.2 1995 58 2,265 10.3 1996 61 2,490 11.2 1997 62 2,449 10.8 1998 64 2,375 10.2 1999 66 2,210 9.4
Employees with gross weekly earnings1 below the National Insurance lower earnings limit and the tax threshold
Great Britain, autumn quarters 1993 to 1999, not seasonally
adjusted
Autumn quarters Weekly limit (£) Thousands Proportion of all employees2 Tax threshold3 1993 66 2,782 13.0 1994 66 2,668 12.4 1995 68 2,753 12.6 1996 72 2,954 13.2 1997 78 3,143 13.8 1998 81 3,172 13.7 1999 83 2,947 12.6 1 LFS earnings are based on those employees earning less than £100 per hour 2 Bases for calculation of percentages exclude employees who did not give a valid response regarding their hourly or weekly earnings 3 Single persons tax threshold Source:
ONS, Labour Force Survey
§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the numbers and proportions for full-time men and women workers who earned below two-thirds of average earnings for each of the last 30 years. [112157]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe 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. Frank Field, dated 2 March 2000:
The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question regarding earnings of full-time male and female employees. I am replying in Dr. Holt's absence.The New Earnings Survey (NES) is based on a one per cent. sample of employees in the PAYE system and is therefore likely to under-represent relatively low paid staff earning below the tax threshold, and in particular those who work part-time. Below is a table showing the requested information from the 1986 to 1999 New Earnings Surveys. This information is not available from 1970 to 1985.We are only able to give percentages earning below specific thresholds, rather than numbers, because appropriate grossing factors for the NES sample are not available.
New Earnings Survey, April of each year (GB) Full-time employees on adult rates, whose pay for the survey period was unaffected by absence. Percentage earning less than
two-thirds of average gross weekly earnings
Males Females 1986 23.0 19.6 1987 24.4 20.8 1988 25.7 22.8 1989 26.1 23.7 1990 26.4 24.0 1991 27.2 23.8 1992 27.5 24.8 1993 28.4 25.3 1994 29.0 25.4 1995 29.2 25.5 1996 29.8 25.7 1997 29.5 25.7 1998 30.4 26.1 1999 30.3 26.7