Luxembourg (1)
Title of the survey
Enquête semestrielle sur les gains et la durée moyenne du travail
offerte (Six-monthly harmonized survey on earnings and average
hours of work offered).
This enterprise survey is supplemented by data from social security
records.
Organization responsible
Service central de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (STATEC)
Periodicity of the survey
Six-monthly.
Objectives of the survey
To observe trends in the hourly earnings of wage earners,
monthly earnings of salaried employees and weekly hours of
work offered per wage earner, by sex and economic activity.
Main labour topics covered by the survey
Employment, earnings and hours of work.
Reference period
The months of April and October each year.
Coverage of the survey
Geographical
Whole country.
Industrial
Mining and quarrying; manufacturing; electricity, gas
and water; wholesale and retail trade; construction; financing
and insurance.
Establishments
Since 1988, all establishments with at least
one employee.
Persons
All employees (except those excluded by the definitions)
working in the enterprises surveyed.
Occupations
Different occupational categories are not taken into
account in the survey.
Concepts and definitions
Employment
Data are collected on employees. A distinction is
made between wage earners and salaried employees, as well as
between full-time and part-time employees and, in each category,
according to sex.
Wage earners are defined as manual workers bound to the
enterprise by a contract of employment and subject to wage
earners' pension insurance. They include wage earners who have
worked for a certain period only because of reduced activity
or suspension of work (lay-offs or redundancies) within the
enterprise.
Salaried employees are all employees bound to the
enterprise by contract of employment and subject to salaried employees'
pension insurance. These include shift foremen and supervisors,
security staff and administrative, technical and
commercial sales workers. Civil servants in state or
local government enterprises are classed as salaried employees.
The survey does not cover senior managers (e.g. company chairman,
managing director), persons working entirely or partially on a
commission basis, management representatives,
apprentices bound to the enterprise by an apprenticeship contract, home
workers, unpaid family workers, cleaning staff, workers receiving
reduced wages because of partial incapacity for work (disabled persons),
employees recruited, dismissed or having resigned during the reference
period.
Part-time workers (wage earners or salaried employees) are
employees whose regular working hours are less than the weekly or
monthly hours normally worked in the enterprise. This
definition covers all forms of service, for example, half-day
work, work during a few days in the month, etc.
Earnings
Data are collected on the total gross earnings of each
employee category.
This is defined as the remuneration paid in cash by the
employer each pay period, before deduction of tax and social
security contributions payable by the employee and retained by
the employer, as well as fines.
Gross earnings comprise remuneration for normal hours
of work, premium pay for overtime and shift work; incentive pay
and other regular bonuses, household allowances, housing
allowances, as well as paid vacations and cash compensation for
leave not taken, and payments for public holidays and other paid
days off.
Excluded from gross earnings are: statutory family
allowances; benefits in kind; irregularly paid bonuses,
gratuities and shares in profits;
payments representing reimbursement of expenses
defrayed by the workers on behalf of the employer (working
clothes or equipment, travel, compensation over and above the
wage for work done by fitters employed outside, etc.).
The data on earnings are collected separately according to
the following components:
- for wage earners:
- gross remuneration paid for normal hours of work;
- remuneration for normal hours and overtime (basic
remuneration, without overtime premiums);
- premium pay for overtime worked;
- total gross remuneration for hours paid for;
- for salaried employees:
- gross remuneration paid for normal hours of work;
- gross remuneration paid for overtime;
- total gross remuneration for hours paid for.
Wage/salary rates
Not relevant.
Hours of work
The survey covers the weekly hours of work offered
for wage earners.
These are the total number of hours paid for during
the reference month, and include normal hours of work, work on
Sundays and public holidays, night work and paid annual leave, as
well as hours spent on trade union activities
and short breaks at the workplace.
Hours of work offered do not include inactive periods caused
by mechanical or electrical breakdown, lack of supply of
materials or clients, or bad weather; meal breaks; study or
training periods; or time corresponding to work stoppages because of
industrial disputes.
The data on hours of work cover only wage earners who
worked full-time during the reference month and workers have
worked during a certain period only because of reduced
activity or suspension of work in the enterprise (lay-offs,
redundancies). The data should reflect
variations in hours of work due to changes in the economic
situation of the enterprises or in the collectively agreed hours
of work.
The following workers and the hours worked by them are
excluded from the survey: wage earners who worked for less than
the whole reference month because of sickness or injury,
dismissal or resignation, personal reasons (unauthorized absence,
unpaid leave, etc.), or involvement in industrial dispute.
Data are also collected on the normal hours of work per week for
salaried employees and on the total overtime hours
worked by
full-time salaried employees. Normal or collectively agreed
hours of work are fixed in the internal rules of
the enterprises.
International recommendations
The concept of gross earnings used
corresponds to the international recommendations on earnings in
current surveys, in as
much as it includes direct wages and salaries paid in cash at
regular intervals as well as remuneration in cash for hours paid
for but not worked. It does not include payments in kind or
irregular bonuses and gratuities.
The concept of hours of work offered is defined by the
Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT) as
the hours of work during a normal period in which there is no
public holiday. This concept takes the enterprise rather than
the worker as its point of reference and therefore includes hours
paid for but not worked for personal reasons, such as sickness or
personal leave, and excludes hours lost for technical or economic
reasons.
However, in this survey, the concept used excludes workers
and hours paid for those absent because of sickness or injury,
personal reasons, etc.
Classifications
Industrial
The data on earnings and hours of work are classified
in accordance with the Standard Classification of Economic
Activities of the European Communities (NACE), 1990, Rev.1,
which is compatible with the International Standard Industrial
Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), Rev.3, 1990.
Occupational
Not relevant.
Others
The data are classified by employee category and by sex.
Sample size and design
Statistical unit
The enterprise.
Survey universe / sample frame
The sample frame is the directory of
enterprises compiled by the STATEC, supplemented by
social security records covering all
enterprises with at least one employee.
Sample design
Not relevant. The survey is based on a complete
enumeration of the enterprises concerned.
Field work
Data collection
Since April 1988, the STATEC has had access to
the data files of the social security institutions and has thus
been able to extend the results of the survey on earnings to
include all enterprises with at least one employee. However, a
postal survey of banks and insurance companies
is still conducted on an exhaustive basis,
as well as on enterprises that pay a
significant number of their employees wages or salaries in excess
of the declarable ceiling, set at seven times the minimum social
wage.
The mailed survey questionnaire is supplemented by telephone
calls and reminder letters to enterprises that have not
returned the questionnaires. The questionnaires are sent out in
June and December.
Survey questionnaire
The six-monthly harmonized survey
questionnaire is in two parts: one on monthly earnings, reported
separately for wage earners and salaried employees, full-time and
part-time, and by sex; the other on average weekly hours of work
offered.
Table 1 contains information on the number of wage earners
by category, the different types of remuneration, normal hours
and overtime. Table 2 contains information on the number of
salaried employees, and the gross remuneration paid for normal
hours and overtime.
The second part concerning average weekly hours of work
offered collects data on:
- normal hours of work including hours of leave, and the number of
hours of overtime worked during the reference month by
full-time and part-time wage earners;
- normal hours of work per week for wage earners and salaried
employees separately;
- total number of hours of overtime worked by full-time
salaried employees;
- pay system for wage earners (monthly, hourly, piece rates);
- number of wage earners paid monthly;
- number of hours taken into account in calculating the monthly
wage of wage earners paid on a monthly basis;
- short time work or lay-offs for technical or economic reasons
during the reference month, where relevant.
Substitution of sampling units
Not relevant.
Data processing and editing
The data are processed by computer.
A manual check is first carried out. In addition to
arithmetical checks, consistency tests are also conducted, by
comparing wage trends over time for each enterprise and analysing
the data supplied by the enterprises in relation to other
enterprises in the same NACE groups or sub-groups.
Types of estimates
- average gross hourly earnings of wage earners;
- average gross monthly earnings of salaried employees;
- average weekly hours of work offered per wage earner.
For each branch of economic activity, remuneration and
hours of work are obtained by totalling the data from each
enterprise. Average hourly earnings by sex are obtained by
dividing total remuneration by the number of hours
paid for. The same method is applied in when passing from the level
of group, to class and then to branch of economic activity.
Construction of indices
Trend indices are constructed for each
branch of economic activity.
Weighting of sample results
Not relevant.
Adjustments
Non-response
No adjustment is made in the case of total
non-response (because of cessation of activities, change of
address, refusal to respond, etc).
In the case of partial non-response, the missing data are
imputed from the replies to the previous
survey or from the monthly survey on industrial activity.
Other bias
Not relevant.
Use of benchmark data
Not relevant.
Seasonal variations
None.
Indicators of reliability of the estimates
Coverage of the sampling frame
The STATEC register of enterprises
is supposed to contain data relating to all the enterprises
covered by the survey.
Sampling error / sampling variance
Not relevant.
Non-response rate
About 5 per cent.
Non-sampling errors
Not examined.
Conformity with other sources
Results by branch are compared with
the information derived from the social security records.
Available series
- average gross hourly earnings of wage earners by branch of
activity and by sex;
- average gross monthly earnings of salaried employees by branch of
activity and by sex;
- average weekly hours of work offered by wage earner
according to sex and the different branches of economic activity.
History of the survey
A survey on earnings and hours of work began
in Luxembourg in October 1953.
The six-monthly harmonized survey on earnings and hours of
work has been carried out
since 1964, up to April 1980
by the Ministère de l'Emploi and the Ministère de l'Economie
within the framework of the harmonization of wage statistics in
the Benelux countries and the Common Market.
The NACE classification has been in use since October 1972.
Since October 1980 the Service central de la statistique et
des études économiques (STATEC) has been responsible for
conducting the survey and processing the data. Up to that date,
the survey covered enterprises with at least one employee in
industry, construction and civil engineering. After 1980, the survey
was extended to wholesale and retail trade, financing and
insurance. The sample was revised, covering only establishments
with ten employees (except for financing and insurance which are
subject to complete enumeration).
Since April 1988, the STATEC has had access to the records
of the social security institutions and has thus been able
to extend the survey on earnings to include all
enterprises with at least one employee. However,
the financing and insurance are still subject to complete enumeration
as are enterprises that pay a significant number
of their employees wages or salaries in excess of the declarable
ceiling, set at seven times the minimum social wage.
Confidentiality / Reliability criteria
Results for a branch
of economic activity are not published if there are fewer than
three enterprise in that branch and if one of them shows a marked
differences in relation to the other two.
Documentation
Ministère de l'Economie, Service central de la
Statistique et des Etudes économiques (STATEC) Annuaire
statistique (annual, Luxembourg).
Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT)
Earnings - Industries and services, Topic 3, series C (annual,
ibid.).
Other information
Social Security administrative records:
Since April 1988, the administrative records of the social
security institutions have been the main source of data for the
harmonized earnings statistics and they supplement the survey on
enterprises. They make it possible to extend information on
wages to all sectors of the economy and to establishments and
enterprises of all sizes.
The social security administrative records cover all employees
registered with the social security.
Definitions:
- Wage earners/salaried employees:
The definitions of wage
earners and salaried employees are the same as those in the
six-monthly survey, these categories having been defined
by the pension insurance scheme.
- Gross earnings:
The composition of gross earnings is the
same as that in the six-monthly survey with the following
exception: the money value of payments in kind (meals, housing,
goods, etc.) is included. Gross earnings also include:
- net wage paid;
- wage tax;
- the insured person's contributions to social insurance
(sickness insurance, pension insurance).
Excluded from the calculation of gross earnings are
irregular payments over and above the normal wage during the
month declared (for example, annual gratuities, end-of-year
bonus, vacation bonus).
- Hours of work:
these are the total of hours actually worked
(normal and overtime) and hours corresponding to leave taken.
Methods:
- Statistical unit: the
establishment or the enterprise,
according to whether the one or the other submits the
declarations of its employees to the social security. Each
establishment or enterprise must supply information concerning
wages and working hours for all workers in its employ.
- Sampling method: using the Social Security
administrative records, all establishments with at least one
employee are covered in the sample.
- Calculations: the calculations are identical to
those of the six-monthly survey. Part-time wage earners are
included in the calculation of average earnings, but salaried
employees are excluded.
- Treatment of non-response: as these are administrative
records, there is no non-response.
Data supplied to the ILO for publication
The following series are published in the Yearbook of
Labour Statistics:
- average weekly hours of work (hours paid for) - wage earners,
- average hourly earnings of wage earners
- average monthly earnings of salaried employees,
in non-agricultural activities, mining and quarrying,
manufacturing and construction (Tables 11 to 14 and 16 to 19).
The six-monthly data are published in the corresponding tables
in the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.