Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 45
1 correct?" Answer, "Absolutely." So, he is not saying, it
2 is absolute minimum is what they are trying to raise
3 standards in society, and nothing should fall below that.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: None of these documents gave the kind of
6 figures which used to appear in broad sheets 25 years ago,
7 which gave comparisons between those at the bottom of the
8 pay scale and shows who, in those days, were thought to be
9 near the top. Things have changed, because one of the jobs
10 they took of the people being near the top, not that I am
11 complaining for a moment about my salary, but they picked
12 judges as those amongst the highest paid, 25 years ago, but
13 what the theme of it was, if you compared us with a
14 Scandinavian country, their comparison might be something
15 like six. We have managed to creep into something like
16 single figures, and it was thought to be socially a good
17 thing. They disappeared from the face of my broad sheets
18 in the last few years and I have a shrewd suspicion that
19 that is because the gap has been growing rather than
20 getting smaller any longer, but nothing in any of the
21 documents in this case does any kind of comparison like
22 that.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: No.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: Anyway, by page 36, line 45, Mr. Pearson says that
27 he now says the figure for low paid is 9.8 million, the
28 current estimate, in this country, so the numbers on low
29 paid are going up. 9.8 million people.
30
31 MR JUSTICE BELL: What did he compare that with?
32
33 MR. MORRIS: The seven million, as he said in 1984, 1995, had
34 now gone up to 9.8 million.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Does that include unemployed?
37
38 MR. MORRIS: No. Let me have a look. You said in 1984 there
39 was some seven million on low wages. Would there be an
40 equivalent figure for now? 9.8 million is the current
41 estimate. He calculates, at the bottom of the page, he
42 says, page 36, that approximately 2.3 million out of 24
43 million workers in Britain were protected by the wages
44 councils, so it looks like he is calculating it on a basis
45 of 24 million workers, 9.8 million low paid, 2.3 million of
46 which had specific wage councils protection. Obviously,
47 the ones that are higher paid tend to be lesser numbers, as
48 the higher up the page you get the less numbers people who
49 get those higher pays, so it is not as if there is 9.8
50 million low paid and 9.8 million high paid and some in the
51 middle, it is a pyramid effect. And unfortunately the ones
52 with the lowest pay are also the most numerous.
53
54 He said on page 37, line 16, catering is one of those
55 sectors which is recognised as being low paid. One of the
56 reasons why in 1946 the wages councils were established in
57 the catering industry was because of low pay. They were
58 still needed in my opinion in August 1993 when the minimum
59 wages were abolished. It was significant that nearly half
60 of the workforce covered by the wages councils were
