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Treasury;Office for National Statistics

Answer

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average percentage change in (a) public sector pay and (b) non-manual earnings has been in each year since 1993. [162291] Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply. Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Mike Hancock, dated 22 March 2004: The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question for a list of the percentage change in (a) public sector pay and (b) non-manual earnings has been in each year since 1993. I am replying in his absence. (162291) I attach a table showing the percentage change in public sector pay and non-manual earnings. Average earnings are estimated from the 2003 New Earnings Survey (NES) and are provided for full-time employees on adult rates of pay whose pay was unaffected by absence during the pay period, by their place of work. This is the standard definition used for NES tables. The NES does not collect data on the self employed and people who do unpaid work. The NES, carried out in April of each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in Great Britain. It is a one per cent sample of all employees who are members of pay- as-you-earn (PAYE) schemes, but because of its sampling frame, it has difficulty capturing data on people with very low pay. It is therefore likely to under-represent relatively low paid staff earning below the tax threshold. Estimates for changes in non-manual earnings from 1993 to 2002 are coded from the non- manual classification in the Standard Occupational Classification 1990. Non-manual tables were not produced as part of the 2003 NES. This is because the data have been coded on the Standard Occupational Classification 2000 which does not differentiate between manual and non-manual employees. An alternative to the manual and non-manual split has been derived from the NES, based on the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) for the 2003 estimate. However, the two classification methods do produce different results and comparisons between the two should only be used with caution. Percentage change in (a) public sector pay and (b) non-manual earnings since 1993. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Public Sector Non-manual 1993 to 1994 2.5 2.9 1994 to 1995 -- 3.1 1995 to 1996 4.2 4.4 1996 to 1997 3.3 4.5 1997 to 1998 3.6 4.5 1998 to 1999 4.0 3.8 1 999 to 2000 3.6 4.5 2000 to 2001 5.3 6.0 2001 to 2002 3.6 4.6 2002 to 2003 3.7 2.1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Notes: The data used for 2002 to 2003 was derived using the NS-SEC. Source for earnings data: New Earnings Survey, April 2003 1. The Inter-Departmental Business Register was used to derive the Public sector. Comprising: (a) Central Government. Government departments and establishments, the National Health Service and various government-financed organisations. (The Armed Forces are not covered by the NES). (b) Local government. Local Government authorities (including education authorities), police service and various other organisations. (c) Public corporations. Nationalised industries, NHS Trusts, and other publicly- constituted trading organisations. 2. Information is provided for average gross weekly earnings including overtime to and relates full time employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay period was unaffected by absence. 3. Data for Public Sector percentage change is unavailable for 1994 -1995 due to a change in 1995 in sectoral coding, it was not possible to calculate the percentage increases for the sectors.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

419 c650-2W;419 c652-4W; 162291

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Pay Public sector Pay settlements Average earnings White-collar workers

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk