Greece (2)

Title of the survey

Labour cost survey. (This description refers to the 1992 survey.)

Organization responsible

National Statistical Service of Greece.

Periodicity of the survey

Every four years.

Objectives of the survey

The survey is carried out within the framework of the harmonized labour cost surveys in the European Community countries, and aims at showing the various aspects of labour costs and earnings for employees in industry and the services.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, earnings, hours of work and labour cost.

Reference period

Labour cost and hours of work: a calendar year. Employment: persons on the payroll at the end of each month during the calendar year.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

Mining, manufacturing, electricity, gas and water, wholesale and retail trade, banks and insurance, and parts of transport, storage and communication and real estate, renting and business activities (sections I and K of the statistical classification of economic activities of the European Community - NACE, Rev. 1).

Establishments

All types of establishments with 10 employees or more.

Persons

All employees (wage earners and salaried employees).

Occupations

Not relevant.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

The data refer to employees, i.e. persons employed in the establishment or enterprise under contract. Data are collected on the number of employees by sex, full- or part-time and apprentices. Employees temporarily absent because of paid leave, strikes or lockouts, military service or illness or injury are included, as well as persons temporarily present on the payroll during notice periods preceding retirement, resignation or dismissal. The following are excluded: working proprietors and directors, piece-workers, commission agents, homeworkers, workers subcontracted from other companies or from temporary work agencies, unpaid family workers and employees on unpaid leave.

Labour cost

The expenditure borne by employers in connection with the employment of workers, comprising the following elements:

direct pay for time worked including overtime, bonuses and gratuities payable regularly at each pay period, gross before deduction of taxes and employees' social security contributions; payments to apprentices are not included in this group;
other bonuses and gratuities not paid regularly at each paid period (production bonuses, compensation for annual leave);
payments for days not worked (annual vacation, public holidays, holiday bonuses, other time off granted with pay, severance pay);
benefits in kind and corresponding compensatory payments (especially housing, heating, food, drink and clothing);
social security contributions and family allowances paid by the employer;
other social expenditure (transport, cultural and medical services);
vocational training costs, including payments to apprentices.

The labour cost data cover all employees, as described above.

Hours of work

Data are collected on hours actually worked and on normal hours of work for all employees. Hours actually worked comprise ordinary and overtime hours, including hours worked on Sundays, holidays and at night and hours corresponding to short rest periods and interruptions of work spent at the place of work. Hours paid for but not worked, for vacation days and sickness, and hours worked by apprentices and part-time workers are not included. Normal hours of work are the hours of work fixed by law or collective agreements for special categories of occupations.

International recommendations

The definition of labour cost conforms to the international recommendations, although the classification of the different elements differs slightly. The definitions of hours of work correspond to the international definitions of hours actually worked and normal hours of work.

Classifications

Components of labour cost / compensation of employees

Data on labour cost are classified by the main components, which correspond roughly to the major groups of the International Standard Classification of Labour Cost (ISCLC-1966).

Industrial

The data are classified according the NACE, Rev. 1, which can be linked to the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities, (ISIC), Rev. 3, 1990.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

Data are classified by size of establishments and by region (five regions).

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The establishment (or enterprise, if separate accounts are not kept) - a location in which one or more persons, being under single control, are permanently engaged in the production, repairing or assembling of goods, or in auxiliary activities other than the main ones. Workshops not known in the territory as handicrafts workshops, for which the working space is not separate from the living quarters, are not included.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sample frame is the Register of Establishments compiled on the basis of the results of the 1988 Census of Industrial Establishments. The frame is not updated using other administrative sources.

Sample design

The establishments are divided into 154 basic strata according to economic activity, at the three-digit level of NACE, Rev. 1. The units in each stratum are further divided into eight strata (10-19, 20-29, 30-49, 50-99, 100-199, 200-499 and 500-999, 1000 or more employees), based on their mean annual employment according to the results of the 1988 Establishment Census. A sample is selected from the first three size groups within each activity stratum; there is a complete enumeration of establishments in the other five size classes. In the 1992 survey, the sample comprised 6,124 establishments, of which 4,407 units with 636,051 employees were surveyed.

Field work

Data collection

Data are collected between May and December following the reference year. About 30 per cent of the units are surveyed by mailed questionnaire, 50 per cent by personal interview and 20 per cent by telephone.

Survey questionnaire

Available in Greek only.

Substitution of sampling units

In cases of total non-response, the next unit in the frame is selected as a replacement.

Data processing and editing

Data are processed by computer and edited by machine. They are coded manually and verified by computer. In cases of missing data, respondents are contacted by telephone or visited by enumerators.

Types of estimates

Average labour cost per employee and average hours of work. Distribution of labour cost by component. Part-time workers are converted to full-time equivalents. Missing data are imputed by comparison with data already received.

Construction of indices

None.

Weighting of sample results

The sample results are expanded to the level of the universe using the standard formula, i.e. using the reciprocal of the sampling fraction as the raising factor.

Adjustments

Non-response

No adjustments are made for non-response.

Other bias

No adjustments are made for any other bias.

Use of benchmark data

None.

Use of other surveys

None.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

The sampling frame covers roughly 70 per cent of the units in mining, manufacturing, and electricity, gas and water, 73 per cent in wholesale and retail trade and 87 per cent in banks and insurance.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not available.

Non-response rate

In the 1992 survey, non-response was approximately 28 per cent of the sampling units selected, of which 14 per cent had closed, eight per cent did not reply and six per cent had changed their activity.

Non-sampling errors

None.

Conformity with other sources

The survey results are compared with those of the quarterly labour survey.

Estimates for non-survey years

Estimates are produced for hourly labour cost in major divisions of economic activity, using changes in direct earnings and social security payments.

Available series

Average hourly, monthly and annual labour cost for all employees;
Average annual hours of work for all employees.

History of the survey

The survey began in 1969 and covered only manufacturing up to 1978. In 1981, mining and electricity, gas and water were added. In 1983, it again covered only manufacturing. Since 1988, the survey has covered mining, manufacturing, electricity, gas and water, wholesale and retail trade, banks and insurance. Prior to the 1992 survey, data on employment, labour cost and hours of work were collected separately for manual and non-manual workers. Up to the 1988 survey, the data were classified according to the Greek statistical classification STAKOD 80, which corresponded to the NACE 70.

Documentation

National Statistical Office of Greece: Labour cost survey (Athens). The results are published about three years after the survey reference year.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

There are no restrictions on the publication of survey results.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Statistics on average labour cost per hour in manufacturing are published in Tables 22A and 22B of the Yearbook of Labour Statistics.