Belgium (2)

Title of the survey

Enquête sur le coût de la main-d'oeuvre dans l'industrie et les services (Survey on labour costs in industry and the services).

Organization responsible

The Institut national de statistique (INS) is responsible for organizing and conducting the survey. The results are published under the responsibility of the INS and the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT).

Periodicity of the survey

Four-yearly (1984, 1988, 1992).

Objectives of the survey

To assess the level and structure of labour cost.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, hours of work and labour cost.

Reference period

Employment: the last day of each quarter of the reference year. Labour cost and hours of work: the calendar year.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

Whole country.

Industrial

Mining and quarrying; manufacturing, electricity, gas and water; construction; wholesale and retail trade; financing and insurance.

Establishments

For industry: units of economic activity at the local level employing at least ten persons. For services: enterprises with ten or more persons employed.

Persons

Employees. Excluded are managerial workers remunerated predominantly by a share of the profits, workers partly remunerated by commission (for example, insurance brokers), workers working only a few hours a week or not remunerated by the establishment (for example, maintenance workers), home workers, temporary staff under contract to temporary employment agencies, and family helpers.

Occupations

Occupations are not registered.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Employees are defined as workers employed in an enterprise or establishment on the basis of a contract. They include wage earners, salaried employees, apprentices and managerial staff.

The following categories are identified separately:

full-time workers;
part-time workers: all those who work to a reduced schedule in relation to the enterprise's normal hours of work, whether on a daily, weekly or monthly basis;
apprentices: persons working in the enterprise on the basis of an apprenticeship contract (classe moyenne apprentices - in small and medium-size enterprises - and apprentices who still attend school for part of the time).

Labour cost

This is defined as the total expenditure on wages and salaries, costs for social security and vocational training, and other expenditures considered as labour cost. The following components are identified separately: Expenditure on wages and salaries:

remuneration for normal hours and overtime actually worked, and bonuses and gratuities paid each pay period to all workers except apprentices;
bonuses not paid each pay period, especially for individual or group work;
bonuses paid at fixed times, for example, end-of-year bonuses, thirteenth month, bonuses paid at the end of the financial year, statutory double vacation pay, etc.);
remuneration for days not worked: single vacation pay for salaried employees, remuneration for public holidays, seniority leave, and other days not worked (short time, time off for trade union activities, etc.);
redundancy pay or payment in lieu of notice;
guaranteed wage in the event of sickness or accident;
guaranteed wage in the event of pregnancy.

Benefits in kind:

products provided to workers free of charge or sold at less than cost price (difference between cost price and price charged to workers);
workers' housing costs paid by the employer: maintenance and administrative costs for housing owned by the enterprise, contributions and taxes, depreciation and interests, after deduction of amounts received from tenants in the form of rents and cost sharing; housing allowances and subsidies for the maintenance of accommodation and repair costs;
company cars at the disposal of workers for private use: depreciation of vehicles, insurance and maintenance.

Social security contributions paid by the employer:

statutory costs:
- contributions to the Enterprise Closure Fund (Fonds de fermeture d'entreprise),
- employers' contribution to the Office National de la Sécurité Sociale (ONSS) (national social security office) in respect of wage earners;
- employers' contribution to the ONSS in respect of salaried employees;
- payments to the Employment Fund;
- Maribel deduction;
- contributions specific to the construction, diamond and metallurgy industries;
- statutory insurance for industrial accidents;
- other contributions;
collectively agreed, contractual or non-obligatory contributions:
- supplementary retirement pension scheme;
- supplementary sickness insurance scheme;
- supplementary unemployment insurance scheme;
- other supplementary insurance schemes in the enterprise;
- collectively agreed, contractual or non-obligatory family allowances and other family supplements;
- other contributions.

Expenditure in respect of vocational training:

remuneration of apprentices;
social security contributions on behalf of apprentices;
other expenditure relating to vocational training: courses paid for by the enterprise, subsistence grants, etc.

Other expenditure:

selection and recruitment costs;
canteens, including depreciation of real estate, and meal vouchers;
other expenditure of a social welfare nature.

Taxes and subsidies:

taxes: taxes on employment and payrolls, after deduction of rebates made by the State;

less

subsidies corresponding to full or partial participation by the public authorities in labour costs;
cost of temporary workers.

Hours of work

Data are collected on:

normal weekly hours of work, i.e. the most usual schedule for all workers (wage earners and salaried employees);
total number of hours worked on an annual basis, by all full-time workers, including full-time apprentices;
total number of hours worked on an annual basis, by all part-time workers, including part-time apprentices.

Hours actually worked include collectively agreed hours of work and hours of overtime actually worked, after deduction of absences for vacation, compensatory days off, sickness, unemployment and other absences. Data are also collected on the number of hours worked by temporary workers.

International recommendations

The definitions of labour cost and of hours actually worked correspond to the international recommendations.

Classifications

Components of labour cost / compensation of employees

The data on labour cost are classified by component groups (see above, under Concepts and definitions). This classification is comparable to the International Standard Classification of Labour Cost (1966).

Industrial

The data concerning labour cost are classified according to the Classification of Economic Activities of the European Communities (NACE), Rev.1, 1990. This classification is compatible with the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), Rev.3, 1990.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

The data on labour cost are also classified by worker category (full-time and part-time).

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

In industry, the reporting unit is the establishment, i.e. the local activity unit. If an enterprise comprises a number of establishments without separate accounts, it must use a distribution ratio based either on the wage bill or on the number of workers. In the services, the reporting unit is the enterprise, irrespective of the number of establishments.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sampling frame comprises the ONSS register of establishments with ten employees or more. In 1991, this register covered a total of 11,410 establishments with 1,039,367 employees and 5,989 enterprises with 418,415 employees.

Sample design

Establishments and enterprises are selected using a random sample design. In industry, the universe is stratified according to industry group, region and size (10 to 49, 50 to 199, 200 or more employees). In the wholesale and retail trades, credit institutions and insurance companies, stratification is by industry group and size of enterprise. The sampling fraction varies according to stratum. Units (enterprises or establishments) with 50 employees or more are all included in the sample.

Field work

Data collection

The survey is conducted by means of mailed questionnaires supplemented by visits from field service agents to establishments or enterprises that have not returned the questionnaires by the required date. Data collection is carried out during the year following the survey year.

Survey questionnaire

The questionnaire is in three parts and requests information on the registered workforce, hours of work, wage costs and employers' social security contributions. Instructions concerning definitions, inclusions and exclusions are provided for each heading.

Substitution of sampling units

Sampling units are not replaced in the event of total non-response.

Data processing and editing

The data are processed by computer. Each questionnaire is edited by comparing the sub-total (of workers, expenditures, etc.) given under each heading of the questionnaire with the grand total.

Types of estimates

total labour cost;
hourly and monthly labour cost per employee and worker category (full-time and part-time);
distribution by components of labour cost (structure).

Construction of indices

Not available.

Weighting of sample results

The aggregated data are obtained by multiplying the results corresponding to the sample units by the following two coefficients:

theoretical sampling fraction of the industry-size stratum (or industry-size-region stratum, if applicable) originally containing unit X.
estimated average response rate for the size class containing unit X.

Adjustments

Non-response

None.

Other bias

Not relevant.

Use of benchmark data

Not relevant.

Use of other surveys

Not relevant.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

The proportions of the target population covered by the sampling frame are as follows:

87.7 per cent for industry;
66.4 per cent for wholesale and retail trade;
84.1 per cent for credit institutions;
97.2 per cent for insurance companies.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not available.

Non-response rate

About 28 per cent.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not relevant.

Estimates for non-survey years

These estimates are required by EUROSTAT and are established for each industry on the basis of average hourly earnings and the updated average of additional costs. The formula is as follows, according to the 1989 example: C89 = (s89/s88) * W88 * (1 + K89) where C89 = updated cost for the year 1989 s89 = average hourly (monthly) earnings in 1989 s88 = average hourly (monthly) earnings in 1988 W88 = average hourly (monthly) earnings in 1988 reported in the last labour cost survey K89 = updated average proportion of related costs for the year 1989 (additional costs/direct earnings). s89/s88 gives the rate of increase in earnings according to the half-yearly harmonized survey on earnings. (1 + K89) is a coefficient of the updated cost structure. If the weight of the additional costs has varied in relation to direct earnings, because of changes in legislation or collective agreements, this is taken into account in the estimates.

Available series

total labour cost,
average cost per full-time and part-time worker,
average hourly and monthly cost,
labour cost structure by component.

History of the survey

The following changes were introduced for the 1992 survey:

extension to include new activities, in particular repairs (cars, motorcycles, household appliances), hotels, restaurants, travel agents and tour operators, real estate, rental and leasing and business services (decision reached within the European Economic Community);
new variables in the questionnaire:
- cost of temporary labour,
- cost of providing a company car for private use,
- recruitment cost;
variable deleted from the 1992 questionnaire: distinction between wage earners and salaried employees.

Documentation

Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT): Labour costs 1988 Vol. 1: Principal results; Vol. 2: Results by size class and region; Series 3C (Luxemburg, 1990). idem: Labour costs: Updating 1989-1991 Series 3C (ibid., 1993).

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

According to the law concerning public surveys, the individual data collected are covered by statistical secrecy. These data may be used only for establishing aggregate and anonymous statistics. If, owing to the limited number of respondents, it is likely that individual situations will be disclosed, this disclosure is subject to prior authorization by the respondent.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

The statistics on hourly labour cost in manufacturing are published in Tables 22A and 22B of the Yearbook of Labour Statistics.