Chile (1)

Title of the survey

Encuesta de Empleo y Remuneraciones (Survey of employment and earnings) (until April 1993)

Organization responsible

Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE).

Periodicity of the survey

Monthly

Objectives of the survey

To provide indicators which measure the development of workers' earnings. The results are used in the calculation of estimates, adjustment of dividends, collective bargaining, etc.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment and earnings.

Reference period

For employment, hours worked, employers' contributions and statutory deductions: the month. For earnings: the month for salaried employees, and the pay period (which must be determined exactly) for specialized and non-specialized wage earners.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole national territory.

Industrial

All economic activities, except agriculture, hunting, fishing and forestry.

Establishments

Establishments in the formal sector with 20 or more workers.

Persons

All employees. Persons who work for a fee, and persons contracted under another form of payment which is not a wage, are excluded.

Occupations

The following occupational groups are distinguished:

administrators and managers;
professional and technical workers;
administrative workers;
sales workers;
specialized salaried employees;
specialized wage earners;
non-specialized workers;
other workers not included above.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

An employee is defined as any natural person who supplies personal, intellectual or material services, in a position of dependency or subordination, by virtue of a contract of employment and in return for a fixed remuneration. Employees include all workers, including casual workers, temporary or seasonal workers, part-time workers, trainees, piece workers, commission agents and persons temporarily absent from work because of vacation, industrial dispute, sickness or accident etc. Contract workers and home workers are excluded. Data on employees are collected separately by occupational group and sex.

Earnings

These refer to regular and irregular remuneration received by workers. Information is collected separately on two types of payments and on each of the components of earnings:

regular payments: these are earnings which are paid monthly to the workers before any deduction is made (basic wage, salary, full pay for a short working week, increase of pay, bonuses, commission, premiums, social security supplement, family allowance, travel allowance, food and perquisites in cash and in kind and gratuities and regularly paid shares in profits);
irregular payments: these are earnings which are not paid every month but at a given time or occasionally (gratuities, year-end bonuses, vacation bonuses, overtime, suggestions, increments for years of service etc.

Advances on pay, supplements, back pay and other payments for months other than the reference month are excluded, together with payments to proprietors and active partners and payments made to contract workers and home workers. For each occupational group, the amount corresponding to each component of earnings and the total number of workers receiving these amounts are recorded. The statistics of average earnings and the earnings indices cover only normal, regular payments in cash and kind. Information is also collected concerning:

employers' contributions to the social security institution (social security service, security fund, compensation fund);
statutory deductions by the employer under the heading of social security contributions, pension contributions, etc.;
increases in earnings paid for the reference month, whether by law, voluntarily or under a collective agreement.

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

Hours of work are not measured. However, information is collected concerning the total number of hours actually worked by all workers, as normal working hours and overtime separately. Hours paid for but not worked (for holidays, leave for medical reasons, etc.) are excluded.

International recommendations

The definition of earnings used in this survey complies with the international recommendations concerning statistics on gross earnings from current surveys.

Classifications

Industrial

The International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), Rev. 2, 1968, is used, at the three-digit level.

Occupational

The Clasificación Ocupacional Tipa (COTA-1970) is used, which is linked to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-68).

Others

Data are classified by size of establishment.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The unit supplying the data is the establishment or the enterprise.

Survey universe / sample frame

For the selection of the sample and its subsamples, the updated directories of enterprises and institutions throughout the country were used in 1982. These were available in the INE, together with the basic law on the national financial administration, which records the services in the public sector.

Sample design

The survey is based on a random sample of middle-sized and large establishments, stratified by economic activity and size of establishment. Within each activity, separate groupings and groups of activities are distinguished and a number of establishments selected, varying according to activity:

in mining and quarrying, electricity, gas and water and construction, establishments were selected in each grouping or group which employed 100 or more workers;
in manufacturing, establishments were classified by size, in six classes (20 to 49; 50 to 99; 100 to 199; 200 to 499; 500 to 999; and 1000 upwards), and the number of establishments selected for the sample was established using a sampling fraction inversely proportional to the number of establishments in the universe. Establishments with 500 workers and over were all selected. In the groups of other sizes, a supplementary sample was selected, in order to avoid a reduction in the number of establishments or their disappearance in course of time;
in wholesale and retail trade, and restaurants and hotels, the number of establishments was selected by assigning to the various sizes a sampling fraction inversely proportional to the number of establishments in the universe;
in transport and communication, establishments which employed 50 or more workers were selected;
in financing, insurance and services provided to enterprises, enterprises which employed 20 or more workers, were selected;
in community and social services, public administration and public education were selected.

The sample has not been updated since the first selection.

Field work

Data collection

At the end of each month the questionnaires are sent out by post. They are posted back by the establishments covered by the survey.

Survey questionnaire

This comprises seven sections, covering:

identification of the enterprise and the establishment,
employment,
hours actually worked,
employers' contributions,
statutory deductions,
increases in earnings,
earnings during the reference month.

Instructions are also sent with the questionnaire regarding definitions, inclusions and exclusions.

Substitution of sampling units

Not relevant.

Data processing and editing

The data from the questionnaires are examined with a view to ensuring that the standards laid down have been observed. In the initial processing, a code is assigned to each responding unit, and the questionnaires which are approved at the examination stage are assembled in integrated work units (UT) by responding units (one or more in number), which are as homogeneous as possible. The total earnings and the number of workers by occupational group, according to the informants' codes, are then transferred to tables for each UT. Average earnings by occupational group at the level of each UT are then calculated, followed by determination of the average earnings of each occupational group at the levels of groups, groupings and divisions, and at the overall level, using weighted averages of the average earnings at each level. The processes of collection, checking, calculation and publication last 50 days, from the end of the reference month.

Types of estimates

Averages of monthly earnings per worker for each occupational group and each branch of economic activity, and average earnings for all activities together. These statistics measure only the movement of all the normal and regular forms of remuneration in cash and kind.

Construction of indices

The Laspeyres formula is used to calculate an index of monthly earnings at the level of each occupational group and each branch of economic activity, and at the level of the whole economy. The earnings indices measure only the movement of the normal and regular forms of remuneration in cash and kind.

Weighting of sample results

The weights used in the statistics of average earnings and of the subindices of the index of earnings are the number of workers employed in the sample establishments engaged in secondary and tertiary activities in October 1982, by occupational group and branch of economic activity.

Adjustments

Non-response

None. The missing data are imputed.

Other bias

None.

Use of benchmark data

Not relevant.

Seasonal variations

Not relevant.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

Not available.

Sampling error / sampling variance

No estimates are made. However, the sample has not been updated since it was selected in 1982.

Non-response rate

Not calculated.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

A simple comparison is made with information obtained from private enterprises.

Available series

average earnings by economic activity and occupational group,
index of monthly earnings by economic activity and occupational group.

History of the survey

The Survey of Employment and Earnings began in December 1982. No change has been made since then. In April 1993 a new survey began, with the title Survey of Labour Costs and Earnings.

Documentation

Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE): Boletín Estadísticas (annual; Santiago). Methodological details on the survey were published in: idem: Estadísticas e Indice de Remuneraciones - Metodología (idem.; 1985). The survey data are stored on computer and are available on diskette.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Publication of data on earnings is subject to the data protection law No. 17 374.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Average monthly earnings are published separately for wage earners and salaried employees, as are series of earnings indices, in non-agricultural activities and in specific industries (until 1993), in Tables 16 to 20 of the Yearbook of Labour Statistics. Monthly series of earnings indices in non-agricultural activities and in manufacturing are also published in the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.