HC Deb 28 January 2002 vol 379 c65W
Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the ratio of female to male earnings in the northern region. [28142]

Alan Johnson

The gap between male and female earnings in the north-east Government office region has narrowed in recent years. According to the New Earnings Survey, conducted by the Office for National Statistics, average hourly pay for full-time employees, excluding overtime, in the north-east, was £8.99 for men and £7.26 for women in 1998, equivalent to a female to male ratio of 80.7 per cent. By 2001, the gender pay gap in the region had narrowed to 84.1 per cent. (£10.08 for men and £8.48 for women), a reduction which can be attributed at least in part to the introduction of the national minimum wage. In Great Britain as a whole the gender pay gap has narrowed from 80.0 per cent. to 81.6 per cent. over the same period.