Productivity and Wages Bill

A bill to authorise the collection of national statistics measuring the divergence between labour productivity and wage rates both nationally and for a variety of subdivisions of the labour force, and to provide new tools and research funding for the integration of this data into national macroeconomic policy.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

Section One: Definitions

1. Labour productivity shall be defined as the amount of output per worker in a given amount of time.
2. Wage rates shall be defined as the amount of base wage paid per worker in a given amount of time. Wage rates shall be defined as the amount of base wage paid per worker in a given amount of time, factoring in the effect of inflation using the Consumer Price Index.

Section Two: Statistics

1. The Office of for National Statistics shall develop and publicise an index to track the divergence between annualised labour productivity and annualised wage rates. The Treasury and any other relevant Government departments shall facilitate the ONS’ collection of data for this purpose. This index shall be calculated for each of the following groups of workers:

(a) The entirety of the labour force.

(b) Workers in households below the official poverty line, and workers in households above the official poverty line.

(c) Workers in households of each decile of annual income.

(d) Workers who performed an average of 30 or more hours of waged labour per week, and workers who performed an average of 29 or fewer hours of waged labour per week.

(e) Female workers, male workers, and any workers identifying as neither female nor male.

(f) Workers from black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds, and white workers.

(g) Workers with a recognised disability, and workers without a recognised disability.

(h) Workers who are members of a trade union, and workers who are not members of a trade union.

(i) Workers in each major, sub-major, and minor classification of occupations as defined by the ICSO-08 classification structure published by the International Labour Organisation.

(j) Workers employed in each NUTS-2 region of the United Kingdom.

(k) Workers living in urban, suburban, and rural areas.

1. Where it is feasible, the ONS shall subdivide categories listed in section (1) according to other categories. The ONS shall not publish such subdivisions unless it is certain that the results to be published are scientifically credible.

Section Three: Tools for integrating productivity and wages into economic policies

1. The Secretary of State for Business, Industry and Labour, and either the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, shall be required to address the House of Commons each year within two weeks of the publication of the annual indices by the ONS to indicate what actions they are taking to maximise rates of wages as compared to productivity.

2. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee shall seek increases in wage rates as compared to productivity alongside the rates of employment and growth as secondary policy objectives.

3. The Department for Business, Industry and Labour shall be allocated £3 million to commission or conduct a detailed study into the most effective way for Britain to increase the rate of wages as compared to labour productivity while maintaining progress on other government macroeconomic policy objectives.

Section Four: Enactment, extent and short title

1. This bill shall come into force on April 1, 2017 1 April 2017.

2. This bill may be cited as the Productivity and Wages Bill Act 2017.

3. This bill shall extend to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This bill was submitted by the Rt Hon. Countess of Tyrone as a Private Member's Bill.

This division will end on 15 February 2017 at 05:00 GMT.

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