asked the Secretary of State for Employment what are the latest convenient figures for comparisons of average wages in the Greater London area and the Greater Manchester area.

The following new earnings survey estimates of average gross weekly earnings in April 1978 relate to full-time men aged 21 and over and women aged 18 and over employed within the specified areas whose pay for the survey reference pay period was not affected by absence. They are rounded to the nearest 10p and are subject to sampling errors. Inter-area differences in occupational and industrial structures and of special London allowances. They do not indicate differences in pay for comparable work.