THE facts and figures on gross weekly earnings in your East Lancashire 2000 supplement's winter edition beggar belief. Whoever wrote them must be living in cloud cuckoo land.

For example, a full-time male manual worker in Lancashire is said to earn £288.70, according to figures for April 1996. May I suggest that in the majority of cases, £120 gross per week would be a truer figure.

Even today, the vast majority of jobs being created, including skilled employment, are paying the miserly figure of the minimum wage of £3.60 per hour. Many of the unemployed being forced into low paid jobs to get unemployment figures down.

I would suggest that £144 gross per week is a more realistic figure in a lot of cases. I fully support the Trades Union Congress call for a minimum wage start of £5 per hour.

Now, before some 'fat cats,' who have probably never done a day's manual work, try to justify the average person's wage, compared to their lifestyle, I suggest they and the MPs who implemented the minimum wage, go to work for a month and earn £3.60 per hour.

I think it would be fair to say I won't get any takers on this one.

Remember the proverb: "What's good for the goose is good for the gander." There should now also be a maximum wage, to curb boardroom greed.

The Government, when in opposition, was always attacking boardroom salaries, but has never had the courage to curb them. Action, not words, is needed.

The expert who wrote the 'East Lancashire 2000' wages table should visit a local jobcentre to get a truer figure of wages here in East Lancashire.

ANDREW HOLDER (Coun), (Independent Socialist, Brunshaw Ward), Waddington Avenue, Burnley.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.