Lithuania - 1

Title of the survey

Monthly Earnings Survey (DA-01).

Organization responsible

Statistics Lithuania, Labour Statistics Division.

Periodicity of the survey

Monthly.

Objectives of the survey

To estimate monthly earnings of full-time employees in different economic activities and sectors and for the whole economy.

The results are used by various Government institutions, State, private and international organisations, enterprises, researchers and academic users.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Earnings.

Reference period

The month.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity except households with employed persons.

Establishments

Enterprises, institutions and organisations of all types of ownership and size, except individual unincorporated enterprises (sole proprietorships).

Persons

Full-time employees.

Occupations

The survey does not collect data by individual occupation.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Employees are permanent residents of the Republic of Lithuania having reached the age of 16 (Law on employment contract, article 4), who are employed on the basis of a direct employment contract, for a fixed or indefinite period of time. They may include young workers between 14 and 16 years of age provided a written agreement has been signed with one of the parents or tutors.

Full-time, full-month employees are persons whose regular working hours are the same as the statutory, collectively agreed or customary hours worked in the enterprise and who have worked the whole of the reference month. According to the law on safety protection at work, normal hours of work cannot exceed 40 hours per week. Included are employees who work under a shortened working schedule provided for by law or collective agreement but who receive the average wage and salary for full-time work.

They include working directors, manual (wage earners) and non-manual employees, commission agents, piece workers, temporary and seasonal workers (provided they have worked the whole of the reference month), and persons temporarily absent from work because of paid vacation or holiday, sickness or accident, provided they received their full wages and salaries for the reference month.

Excluded are part-time workers and workers who have not worked a full month (due to sickness, enrolment or dismissal during the month, or any other reason), apprentices and trainees, home workers, casual workers, unpaid contributing family workers and persons temporarily absent on unpaid vacation or holiday, lay off, industrial dispute, temporary military service, etc.

Data are collected on the total number of full-time employees, without any distinction.

Earnings

Data are collected on total and average gross and net monthly earnings of full-time employees. Gross monthly earnings include:

direct wages and salaries for time worked and work done, including premium pay for overtime, shift and night work, etc. incentive pay, production bonuses and other regularly paid bonuses;
payments for time not worked, for vacation, annual leave, time off with pay, etc.;
irregular bonuses and gratuities, such as seasonal, year-end and similar bonuses and profit-sharing bonuses

Total premiums, bonuses and fringe benefits, out of which irregular premiums and bonuses, are separately identified.

Excluded from gross earnings are cost-of-living allowances, housing, transport, family and similar allowances and the value of payments in kind, sick leave payments and other payments from social security funds.

Total net earnings are computed after deduction of employees' compulsory social security contributions (1%) and individual income taxes from total gross earnings.

Average gross and net earnings are calculated (by the responding enterprise) by dividing the total amount of earnings by the number of full-time employees.

Wage / salary rates

Not relevant. Minimum monthly and hourly wages and basic salaries are set by the Government in accordance with the Payment Law of the Republic of Lithuania (Art. 2).

Hours of work

Not relevant

International recommendations

The definition of earnings conform to the international recommendations; it includes regular and irregular payments, but is limited to cash earnings.

Classifications

Industrial

Data are classified according to the Statistical Classification of economic activities of the European Communities (NACE, Rev. 1), which is itself based on the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.3.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

Data are classified by economic sector.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling and reporting unit is the enterprise, institution or organisation, i.e. a legal entity.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sampling frame is drawn from the Statistical Profile Business Register, which is itself based on the Administrative Business Register. Both registers are updated on a continuous basis.

The sampling frame includes 31,878 units (enterprises, institutions and organisations, excluding individual enterprises) and covers some 1,085,395 employees.

Sample design

Stratified simple random sampling is used. Stratification is by economic activity and employment size (number of employees). In each economic activity, the number of strata varies from 1 to 6.

The sample covers 4,849 units (i.e. 15.2% of the sampling frame) and 583,019 employees (i.e. 53.7%). It is updated each year.

Field work

Data collection

It is carried out by means of mailed questionnaires which must be returned by the 10th of the month following the reference month.

Survey questionnaire

It consists of one single page which collects the following data for the reference month and the previous month:

identification of the enterprise
number of full-time employees
total gross wages and salaries for these employees, out of which:
- premiums, bonuses, fringe benefits, of which:
  - irregular premiums and bonuses
average gross wages and salaries (total gross wages and salaries divided by the number of full-time employees)
total net wages and salaries
average net wages and salaries (total net wages and salaries divided by the number of full-time employees)
reason(s) for any significant changes in comparison with the previous period.

Substitution of sampling units

In case of total non-response, sampling units are not replaced and imputation is used (see below, under Adjustments).

Data processing and editing

Data are processed and edited by computer. In case of missing or inconsistent data, contacts are made by telephone.

Types of estimates

Monthly totals, averages and ratios (number of employees and earnings).

Construction of indices

A simple conversion of average earnings absolute figures into index numbers is carried out, without fixed weights.

Weighting of sample results

The sample data are extrapolated using the Horvitz-Thompson estimator:

where

Y_k: gross earnings fund or number of employees of sample unit k,
P_k: probability for unit k to be included,
n: sample size.

Adjustments

Non-response

In case of total non-response from an existing unit, data are imputed on the basis of the stratum average values of the variables of interest.

Other bias

Adjustments are made to take account of changes in type of activity, changes in the number of employees, the merging or splitting of enterprises. In such cases, the real inclusion probabilities are calculated.

Use of benchmark data

Not relevant.

Seasonal variations

No adjustments are made for seasonal variations.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

The sampling frame is assumed to cover the total population of enterprises, institutions and organisations, excluding individual proprietorships.

Sampling error / sampling variance

The coefficient of variation of earnings is required not to exceed 3% by economic activity.

The relative standard errors with a 95% confidence interval are calculated for all Horvitz-Thompson estimates (totals and ratios).

Non-response rate

The overall non-response rate is about 11%: about 10% on legitimate grounds (bankrupt, liquidation, suspension of economic activity) and 1% are true non-respondents.

Non-sampling errors

The main issue is the problem of possible under- or over-coverage of the sampling frame.

Conformity with other sources

Not relevant.

Available series

Average gross and net monthly earnings, indices of earnings for the whole economy, minimum values (minimum wage and salary rates fixed by law and regulations) and their changes;

Changes in average monthly earnings by sector and economic activity.

History of the survey

The monthly survey was introduced in April 1991. Until December 1993, it covered the public sector only. Since January 1994, it covers the whole economy, excluding individual/unincorporated enterprises.

Documentation

Statistics Lithuania: Wages and Salaries Information (Ref. E340, monthly; Vilnius); issued on the second day after the Press Release which appears 25 or 26 calendar days after the reference month. This publication contains the survey results and methodological information.

idem: Economic and Social Development in Lithuania (Ref. B111, monthly; ibid.); monthly statistics are published two months after the reporting month;

idem: Wages and Salaries by months (Ref. B333, annual; ibid.). This publication contained absolute figures of earnings and was published each year from 1994 to 1998. It will not be published in 1999.

idem: Earnings Indices, 1991-1998 (Ref. B334, April 1999; ibid.).

See also the information available on the Web-site: http://www.std.lt

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Data are not disseminated (a) if they cover three or less enterprises by economic activity or if one of them represents 70% of the number of employees in the stratum, or (b) if the relative standard error is higher than 10%.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Monthly and quarterly series of average monthly earnings are published in the relevant tables of the the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.