Minimum Wage

Mr. Hepburn
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people were paid at the rate of the national minimum wage in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the north-east and (d) the UK in each year since 1997.

Mr. McFadden
Data for earnings are not available at the local authority or constituency level because of small sample sizes at these levels in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).

Due to rounding in the conversion of payroll data into hourly wage rates and small sample sizes for 16-17 and 18-21 year olds in ASHE, it is not possible at the regional level to infer the number of employees earning exactly at the national minimum wage (NMW) with sufficient certainty. However it is possible to estimate the number who were paid at or below the NMW.

Table 1 shows estimates from BIS analysis of ASHE for the number of jobholders in the North-East Government Office Region and the UK who were paid at or below the NMW in April of each year from 2004 to 2009. Comparable data for earlier years are not available as supplementary information required for the estimates was introduced in 2004.

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|                                                                                                      |North East|UK     |
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|2004                                                                                                  |40,000    |580,000|
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|2005                                                                                                  |50,000    |690,000|
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|2006                                                                                                  |40,000    |740,000|
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|2007                                                                                                  |50,000    |830,000|
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|2008                                                                                                  |50,000    |830,000|
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|2009                                                                                                  |50,000    |790,000|
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|Source:BIS analysis of Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10,000.|          |       |
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