France (3)
Title of the survey
Enquête sur le coût de la main-d'oeuvre (Survey on Labour Costs).
(Merged with the wage structure survey in 1992)
Organization responsible
L'Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE)
is responsible for organizing and conducting the survey. The results
are published under the responsibility of the INSEE and the Statistics
Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT).
Periodicity of the survey
Four-yearly (1984, 1988, 1992).
Objectives of the survey
To evaluate wages and labour cost as well as its components by economic
activity, size of production unit and geographical location, thereby
facilitating comparisons of labour cost in the countries of the European
Union.
Main labour topics covered by the survey
Employment, earnings, hours of work and labour cost.
Reference period
The calendar year if the financial year begins in January and ends in
December, otherwise a twelve-month period corresponding to the financial
year.
Coverage of the survey
Geographical
The whole country (Metropolitan France).
Industrial
The 1992 survey covered all branches of economic activity in the private
sector.
Establishments
Establishments of all sizes in the private sector.
Persons
All employees with a contract of employment.
Occupations
Occupations are not recorded in the survey on labour cost.
However, data on occupations have been collected as part of
a supplementary survey on wage structures.
Concepts and definitions
Employment
The data concern the employees of the establishment. These
include full-time employees (working the normal stated hours of work,
regardless of duration of employment in the year in question) and
part-time employees (working a reduced timetable in relation to normal
hours of work), as well as workers under contract to the establishment
and workers without an exclusive contract of employment.
The following categories are identified separately:
- employees under contract to the establishment, of whom:
- wage earners;
- salaried employees;
- supervisors and technicians;
- managers;
full-time and part-time separately identified;
- other employees under contract, of whom:
- apprentices;
- young persons with training contracts (e.g. qualification,
adaptation, career guidance contracts);
- workers paid entirely or partially on a commission basis:
commercial travellers, representatives and brokers (excluding
those representing more than one firm) and technical-commercial
representatives;
- workers without an exclusive contract of employment, of whom:
- home workers and commercial travellers, representatives and brokers
representing more than one firm;
- family helpers;
- trainees not earning a wage, but paid a gratuity or fixed
sum.
Excluded from the survey are directors or managers who do not earn a
salary (but remunerated on a profit-sharing or lump sum basis), workers
paid in the form of fees, workers from temporary work agencies or other
temporarily hired workers, and persons on early retirement, exempted
from activity or under suspended contract.
For employees under contract, data are collected
on the average number per month of employees remunerated on a
full-time basis and employees remunerated on a part-time basis,
by category.
Figures for other employees under contract are given in terms of number
of contract-months for apprentices and young persons in training, and in
terms of average monthly number of workers paid by commission.
The number of persons without a contract of employment is expressed in
terms of workers recorded who were engaged in the activity during the
financial year.
Labour cost
This represents total expenditure on wages and salaries (gross
remuneration paid by the establishment) and in employers'
statutory and non-obligatory contributions made on behalf of
employees during the reference period.
Total gross remuneration comprises the basic wage, overtime payments and
paid vacations, the various bonuses and allowances, including benefits
in kind. It excludes the wages of medical workers if these are paid by
the works council of the enterprise or establishment, vacations, fees,
and flat-rate expense allowances of company directors.
The following wage cost components, of which certain are
included in the gross wage and others added to it, are identified
separately:
- total gross remuneration paid by the establishment before deduction
of contributions to social security and other charges payable by
employees:
- allowances paid to employees:
- additional payments in respect of absence due to illness;
- allowance for short-time work;
- early retirement pensions paid directly to employees;
- severance and termination pay;
- retirement payments;
- additional social benefits paid directly to employees: family
supplements as provided for by collective agreement, creche and
child-minding premiums, long-service medal, meal vouchers (employer
share);
- benefits in kind (estimated real cost):
- company vehicles: value of annual cost for private use, taking into
account wear and tear, maintenance, insurance and fuel;
- housing: benefits in kind valued in terms of cost price (less rents
charged) or compensatory payment;
- cost of goods provided free of charge or at a reduced prices, and
allowances (except for work tools): net cost price;
- other benefits in kind (sport equipment, telephone,
vouchers/coupons): net cost prices;
- social security contributions:
- sickness, maternity, disability, death;
- old-age;
- family allowances;
- housing allowances;
- occupational accident;
- unemployment insurance:
- unemployment insurance paid to the ASSEDIC (association for
employment in industry and commerce) or direct payments, if the
enterprise is its own insurer;
- contributions payable to the wage guarantee fund;
- other (association for the employment of executives (APEC),
ASSEDIC, conversion agreement, etc.);
- employers' contribution to the construction effort;
- supplementary pensions administered by the different pension funds
(AGIRC - general association of pensions institutions for executive
personnel, ARRCO - association of supplementary pension schemes, UNIRS -
national union of employees' pension institutions, CAMARCA - independent
insurance fund for farmers' supplementary pensions, etc.);
- Provident funds:
- provident fund administered by enterprise or industry mutual
benefit schemes;
- provident funds administered by any other organization,
including insurance companies;
- complementary insurances, supplementary pensions;
- other contributions in connection with the employment of workers;
- paid leave:
- For establishments affiliated to a paid leave fund: paid vacations
and vacation allowance; prevention, safety; apprenticeship; bad
weather for major construction work; bad weather for the secondary work:
other contributions by the employer to the paid leave fund; total of
indemnities paid to the employees; less
Less
- reimbursements made by the funds;
- for other establishments: remuneration and costs of
paid vacation and public holidays;
- apprenticeship and vocational training costs:
- apprenticeship tax;
- tax and other costs of further training (materials, hire of
premises, meetings, audits, travel, etc.);
- gross remuneration and attendant employers' contributions in
respect of apprentices;
- gross remuneration and related employers' contributions in respect
of young persons in training;
- wages and social security contributions for other employees
undergoing training;
- wages and employers' contributions for training instructors employed
by the establishment;
- Other expenditure of a social welfare character not directly
paid to employees:
- payments made to the works council (operation, canteen, holiday
camps, Christmas tree, etc.);
- expenditures made directly by the employer (including fees and
vacations for health workers, and related costs);
- transport costs and other allowances representing costs borne by the
employer:
- tax and cost of transport to and from work;
- miscellaneous allowances;
- payments in connection with workers' participation, profit-sharing
schemes, agreed supplementary payments:
- participation (payment into the special reserve for the financial
year);
- profit-sharing (payment for the financial year);
- additional employer payments to the company savings scheme during
the financial year (agreed supplementary payment);
- tax on wages;
Less
- financial subsidies received in connection with the employment of
workers (such as employment or training incentives, etc.);
- other costs for workers and related costs:
- lump-sum expense allowances to company directors;
- auditors' emoluments and accountant's report;
- payment of home workers (including social security
contributions);
- amounts paid to labour-hiring services;
- gratuities to unpaid trainees;
- special recruitment costs (expenditure on job advertisements,
sums paid to recruitment agencies, expenses paid to candidates,
etc.).
Hours of work
The survey covers:
- the annual total of hours paid for , including paid
vacation, paid absences and overtime, separately for employees under
contract to the establishment working full-time and those working
part-time, and for the following categories:
- wage earners;
- salaried employees;
- supervisors and technicians;
- executives (managers);
- the annual total of hours of actual presence (excluding
hours of training, vacation and absence) at the workplace of other
employees under contact:
- apprentices under contract;
- young persons in training.
The hours actually worked for an establishment are
calculated as follows:
Total of hours paid for in respect of employees under contract
(full-time or part-time), excluding apprentices, young persons in
training and commercial travellers, representatives and brokers,
adjusted by the average rate of absence in the establishment (calculated
on the basis of individual data in the section wage structure)
from which are subtracted: hours of training and hours of paid leave
(calculated on the basis of the total of hours paid for, modified by a
coefficient of paid leave; this is the ratio of annual leave
entitlements - requested in the questionnaire - to the number of days
normally paid for, i.e. 262).
International recommendations
The definition of labour costs is in line with that contained in the
international recommendations.
The concept of hours actually worked used in this survey for the two
major groups of employees corresponds to the concept contained in the
international recommendations. The other concept refers to hours paid
for, including hours paid for but not worked.
Classifications
Components of labour cost / compensation of employees
The statistics on labour cost are classified by groups of components
(see above, under Concepts and definitions). This
classification corresponds to the International Standard Classification
of Labour Cost (1966), with certain modifications such as, the cost of
housing which is included among benefits in kind. Moreover, certain
components of labour cost not elsewhere classified in the
international classification are described as groups of components (cost
of transport to and from work borne by the employer) or included under
other major groups of components (cost of recruitment).
For the statistical requirements of the European
Communities, the data on labour cost structure are classified as
follows:
- direct cost, of which:
- direct earnings;
- bonuses and gratuities;
- remuneration for days not worked;
- payments in kind;
- statutory social security contributions, of which:
- sickness and old age;
- unemployment insurance;
- guaranteed remuneration;
- occupational injury and occupational disease;
- family allowances;
- other statutory contributions;
- collectively agreed social security contributions, of which:
- sickness insurance;
- old age pension scheme;
- guaranteed remuneration;
- unemployment insurance;
- family allowances;
- other collectively agreed social security expenditures;
- total of statutory and collectively agreed social security
contributions;
- other expenditures;
- cost of vocational training;
- taxes.
- grants-in-aid (deducted from costs).
Industrial
The data relating to labour cost are classified according to principal
activity engaged in (APE: Activité principale exercée) and the Standard
Classification of Economic Activities of the European Communities (NACE)
- 1990, Rev. 1. The NACE Rev. 1 is itself based on the International
Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC),
Rev. 3, 1990.
Occupational
Not relevant in the context of the survey on labour
cost.
Others
The data are also classified according to size of establishment
(establishments with fewer than 10 employees, 10 to 19, 20 to 49, 50 to
99, 100 to 199, 200 to 499, 500 to 999, 1000 or more).
In 1992, the distinction between manual and non-manual workers was
dropped. A breakdown is now made (for data on employment and hours of
work) between full-time and part-time employees. This distinction does
not concern expenditure on wages and labour cost.
Sample size and design
Statistical unit
The statistical unit is the establishment, in principle.
However, if an enterprise with several establishments does not have
separate data for each of them, it may supply the required information
by applying a distribution ratio to each establishment on the basis of
direct wages or workers employed.
Survey universe / sample frame
The sample frame is the file on establishments, based on the Système
informatique pour le Répertoire des Entreprises et des Etablissements
(SIRENE) of the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes
Economiques (INSEE). The SIRENE data file is updated daily to take into
account the foundation, modification and closure of enterprises (over
10,000 daily updates), on the basis of official statements issued by the
chambers of industry and commerce, the Clerks' Offices of the Commercial
Tribunals, the tax offices, etc., and by INSEE surveys.
In 1992, the SIRENE data base listed some 3,300,000 active enterprises
and about 3,800,000 active establishments. The establishments listed in
SIRENE employ both wage earners and non- wage earners. According to the
employment survey of March 1993, the economically active population in
employment (excluding conscripts called up for national service) at that
date came to 22 million, including 2,6 million employers and
self-employed persons and 0,5 million family helpers.
Sample design
In 1992, the survey covered a sample of 25,000 units employing over
three million wage earners. The sample of respondents comprised 16,000
establishments employing 2,210,000.
After stratification by region, economic activity and size of unit, the
sampling units were selected with unequal probabilities, according to
rates inversely proportional to the number of units in the universe.
Field work
Data collection
The survey is conducted by postal questionnaire. A preliminary notice
is sent to the establishments selected before the survey begins, to
inform them of the objectives and methods of the survey. The
questionnaire is sent in January of the year following the reference
year (January 1993 for the 1992 survey) and it must be returned to the
INSEE by 1 March of the same year.
Survey questionnaire
Because the labour cost survey was merged with the wage structure survey
in 1992, three separate questionnaires were used:
- Survey on labour cost and wage structure (main survey);
- idem: additional questionnaire covering a sub-sample of
employees;
- idem: enterprise management questionnaire.
In the first questionnaire, the establishments are asked about their
workers, the main qualitative and quantitative aspects of the
remuneration system, wage bills and wage costs, and certain
characteristics about the organization of production, products and
markets specific to the enterprise or establishment.
Individual data on the employees or a sample of them (qualification,
type of contract, composition of annual wage or salary, etc.) are also
requested: for this purpose, a sample of employees is selected according
to the procedure described in the explanatory notice.
The purpose of the second questionnaire is to study the wage and salary
structure, and it requests information on the employees of a sub-sample
of establishments, such as last diploma obtained, professional
experience, and other elements relating to the employee's professional
career or family circumstances.
The third questionnaire, addressed to enterprise management in cases
where an establishment questioned is part of a multi-establishment
enterprise, concerns in particular: employment in the enterprise,
financial relationships, economic characteristics (market share,
proportion of production located abroad), wage policy at enterprise
level, restructuring, concentration or diversification projects over the
last five years.
Detailed explanatory notes are enclosed with the questionnaires.
Substitution of sampling units
In the case of total non-response (because activities have ceased,
change of address, refusal, etc.), establishments are not replaced.
Data processing and editing
Data are processed by computer after manual checking. In certain
cases, the questionnaires are returned to the units surveyed for
supplementary information.
Types of estimates
- assessment of the price of labour: total labour cost and hourly and
monthly cost per employee.
- labour cost analysis: distribution by labour cost components.
In order to measure hours of work and hourly labour cost, part-time
employees are converted to full-time equivalents.
The aggregated results are obtained by weighting, using the
number of hours actually worked in the establishment.
Construction of indices
Not relevant.
Weighting of sample results
Ex ante weights are calculated as the inverse of the sampling fraction.
To adjust for non-response, the weights of respondents are corrected
according to the probability of their responding to the survey. This is
estimated according to the characteristics of the establishment,
available in the survey data file taken from the SIRENE directory. The
weights for non-respondents are then reassigned to respondents with
similar characteristics, in a varying manner according to the
probability of the estimated response.
Adjustments
Non-response
These adjustments form part of the sample weighting procedure (see
above).
Other bias
Not relevant.
Use of benchmark data
At the enterprise level, the data are benchmarked on the SIRENE
directory. The data on wages and salaries are checked for consistency
against the Déclarations Annuelles de Données Sociales and the
Employment Structure Survey.
Use of other surveys
Not relevant.
Indicators of reliability of the estimates
Coverage of the sampling frame
The SIRENE data base is the official directory in which all enterprises
in France and all their establishments are registered.
Sampling error / sampling variance
Not available
Non-response rate
32 per cent in 1988, 39 per cent in 1992.
Non-sampling errors
Not known.
Conformity with other sources
The data on employment collected in the survey on labour
cost are compared with those derived from the survey on
employment structure. The level of basic wages, bonuses etc. is
compared with the results of the survey on the wage structure.
Estimates for non-survey years
These estimates are calculated by EUROSTAT and established as follows
for each year between survey years (the following example applies
to 1989):
C89 = (s89/s88) * W88 * (1 + K89),
where
C89 = cost updated 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 cost survey
K89 = updated average share of additional costs for 1989 (additional
costs/direct earnings).
s89/s88 gives the rate of increase in earnings according to national
surveys. The source used is the six-monthly Survey on the activity and
working conditions of the labour force (ACEMO).
(1 + K89) is the coefficient of the updated cost structure. If the
weight of additional costs in proportion to direct earnings has varied
because of changes in legislation or collective agreements, this is
taken into account in the estimates.
Available series
- level (monthly and hourly cost, monthly and hourly wage) and
structure of labour cost,
- number of employees,
- hours of work,
by economic activity, size, region and employee category, and
cross-classifications of these variables.
History of the survey
The survey on labour cost is part of the European Community system of
statistics on wages and is conducted under the auspices of the
Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT). From 1966 to
1981, the survey took place every three years. Since 1984 it has been
conducted every four years. The surveys relating to 1966, 1969, 1972,
1975, 1981 and 1984 covered industry, whereas those relating to 1970,
1974, 1978, 1981 and 1984 covered wholesale and retail trade, banking
and insurances.
The 1988 survey, conducted in 1989, collected data on labour cost
only and covered industrial establishments and construction enterprises,
wholesale and retail trades, banks, insurances and services with 10 or
more employees.
The 1992 survey on labour cost was merged with the survey on wage
structure (which supplies individual information for a sample of
employees) so as to enhance the use of data from each source through the
information collected from the other, and also to rationalize the
response burden on the establishments. The survey coverage was extended
to include establishments with between 1 and 9 employees and all
non-agricultural market activities.
Since 1992, the distinction between manual and non-manual workers has
been dropped from the results on the level and composition of labour
cost.
Documentation
Institut national de la statistic et des études économiques (INSEE):
Economie et statistique (11 issues per year; Paris); the survey
results are published about 18 months after the reference period.
idem: INSEE Résultats (irregular; ibid.).
idem: INSEE Première (irregular; ibid.).
In the last two mentioned publications, one issue every four years is
devoted to the survey results.
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, 1992).
idem: Labour Cost - Updating 1989-1991 Series 3C
(ibid., 1993).
At the time this methodological description was prepared,
the results of the 1992 survey were not yet available.
Detailed results not appearing in the national publications can
be obtained from the INSEE on request, and the data can be
provided on tape or diskette.
Confidentiality / Reliability criteria
In accordance with Act No. 51-711 of 7 June 1951 (amended),
concerning obligation, coordination and secrecy in statistical
matters, the data collected are covered by statistical secrecy
and
may under no circumstances be used for purposes of tax
inspection or economic repression.
The dissemination of the results is also subject to statistical
secrecy whereby each cell of results must contain at least
three units, none of these having a weight superior to a certain
percentage of the total.
Other information
Data supplied to the ILO for publication
Statistics on hourly labour cost in manufacturing are
published in Tables 22A and 22B of the Yearbook of Labour
Statistics.