Luxembourg (2)

Title of the survey

Organization responsible

Periodicity of the survey

Objectives of the survey

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Reference period

Hours of work and labour cost: the calendar year.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

Industrial

Establishments

Persons

Excluded are:

• managers and executives remunerated predominantly by a share of profits or a lump sum payment, e.g. the chairman and the managing director,
• family helpers,
• home workers without a contract of employment,
• persons working on a commission basis only (e.g. commercial travellers),
• workers supplied by temporary work agencies or other enterprises,
• cleaners working only a few hours a week.

Occupations

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Employees are all persons with a contract of employment with the enterprise or establishment, and who are paid a remuneration, irrespective of the nature of the work performed, the number of hours worked or the duration of the contract (fixed-term of permanent).

Wage earners are all manual workers with a contract of employment, who are remunerated either at piece rates or on the basis of an hourly or daily wage; wage earners who are paid by the month are also included in this category provided they are engaged in manual work only.

Foremen and supervisors are excluded from the wage earner category even if they are paid on the basis of an hourly or daily wage.

Salaried employees are all employees not counted as wage earners and who have a contract of employment. They include foremen, supervisors, engineers, executives as well as the managerial staff of the establishment.

Apprentices are persons who do not yet participate fully in production and who work under a vocational training contract, i.e. under conditions in which vocational training predominates over productivity.

Full-time workers (wage earners and salaried employees) are those who work at least 35 hours a week. The data refer to the average number of full-time employees registered on the payroll at the end of each month and who have been paid a remuneration.

Part-time workers are those whose regular working hours are shorter than the weekly or monthly working hours customary in the establishment. This definition covers all part-time workers, irrespective of the form of time schedule (half-day, one, two or three days a week, etc.). The number of persons working part time (by category and sex) corresponds to the annual average of persons according to the number of hours worked per week. The annual average is calculated by adding the number of persons registered at the end of each month and dividing the figure thus obtained by 12.

Labour cost

• wages and salaries (time rates, output or piece rates) paid for the hours worked, including payments (normal wage rate and premiums) for overtime, night work, work on Sundays and public holidays, and shift work;
• bonuses and allowances regularly paid each pay period, such as productivity, output or production bonuses, bonuses or allowances in connection with a post of responsibility, punctuality, regularity and seniority bonuses, danger, dirt and discomfort allowances, shift or continuous work bonuses, allowances for work carried out in a place other than the workplace (assembly costs, etc.).

Bonuses and gratuities not paid each pay period:

• end-of-year, Christmas bonuses, thirteenth month;
• production, productivity bonuses and profit-sharing bonuses;
• payments into an employee benefit fund.

Remuneration for time not worked: payments for statutory, collectively agreed or voluntarily granted paid leave, public holidays and other days remunerated but not worked, for personal or family reasons, absence on trade union activities, civic leave, etc.

Redundancy, severance and termination pay: payment in lieu of notice, for voluntary departure, etc.

Payments in kind:

• goods (food, drinks, fuel and other payments in kind provided free of charge or sold to workers at less than cost price) and compensatory payment for unused benefits in kind; this category also includes costs arising from low-interest loans to employees;
• housing and housing allowances, including maintenance and administrative costs, taxes, insurance, depreciation and interest; grants to employees for rent payment and housing maintenance and special costs of repairs; and after deduction of the amount of rent collected, costs recovered on occupants of the premises and non-reimbursable grants by third parties;
• company cars at the disposal of employees for official and private use: net operating costs borne by the enterprise, for leasing, depreciation, insurance, maintenance, servicing, parking, etc.

Statutory social security contributions paid by the employer, after deduction of all subsidies, where such are granted:

• sickness insurance,
• old-age, invalidity pension insurance,
• employment injury and occupational disease,
• family allowances,
• other social security contributions.

Collectively agreed, contractual or non-obligatory contributions paid by the employer in respect of employees:

• supplementary retirement, early retirement and provident schemes: old-age, invalidity:
  • premiums paid to third party insurance institutions,
  • independent funds and schemes,
  • reserves and provisions entered in the balance sheet,
  • other,
• collectively agreed, contractual or non-obligatory health insurance;
• supplementary unemployment schemes;
• other collectively agreed, contractual or non-obligatory schemes.

Direct social security benefits:

• guaranteed wage in the event of sickness and maternity,
• compensation paid for employment injuries and occupational illnesses,
• amounts paid to compensate for loss of earnings due to bad weather,
• extra compensation for short-time work paid directly to the employees,
• collectively agreed family allowances,
• death allowances,
• other benefits.

Cost of vocational training:

• remuneration of apprentices and others during periods of apprenticeship, training, supplementary training and further training, including gratuities and bonuses and remuneration for days not worked,
• statutory contributions paid by the employer in respect of apprentices and others,
• Other vocational training costs: depreciation of buildings and equipment, repairs, maintenance, course fees, instructors' fees, contributions or subsidies paid to vocational training institutions etc., after deduction of subsidies received and the value of the output produced by workers undergoing training and subsequently sold.

Other costs:

• cost of recruitment (reimbursement of travel expenses, removal allowances, etc.),
• canteens and meal vouchers,
• other welfare services: social services, medical services at the workplace, cultural, sporting and leisure facilities and services, nursery schools and crèches, purchasing clubs, fares to and from work, cost of work clothes supplied by the employer, payments to trade union funds, scholarships to employees and their families, etc.

Less

• grants-in-aid received, with the object of partially or fully compensating for direct remuneration.

Quantitative data are also collected separately on the costs for temporary workers:

• cost of employing temporary workers (amounts paid to temporary employment agencies for supplying workers),
• number of hours worked by temporary workers.

Hours of work

For full-time wage earners and salaried employees, the hours actually worked correspond to:

• the normal hours of work per week for an employee, as applicable to the majority of employees of the establishment during the year, plus
• the total number of overtime hours worked during the year,

• the average number of days of paid vacation per worker during the year,
• the average number of public holidays per worker during the year,
• the total number of special leave days granted on a statutory, collectively agreed or non-obligatory basis during the year,
• the total number of days of absence due to sickness, injury or maternity during the year,
• the total number of days of short-time work during the year,
• the total number of other days of absence during the year.

For part-time workers, the number of hours actually worked represents the average number of hours of work per week for a part-time employee as applied to the majority of employees of the establishment. This corresponds to the theoretical number of hours worked annually per employee, after deduction of paid vacation, public holidays, days of sickness and special leave granted on a statutory, collectively agreed or non-obligatory basis.

International recommendations

Classifications

Components of labour cost / compensation of employees

Industrial

Occupational

Others

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

If an enterprise consists of more than one establishment and failing adequate accounts, it may supply the information requested by applying distribution ratios, established on the basis of direct wages or number of employees.

Survey universe / sample frame

Sample design

Field work

Data collection

Survey questionnaire

• number of employees during the reference year;
• hours of work;
• expenditure on wages and salaries and employers' social security contributions in respect of employees;

as well as the identity of the person from whom supplementary information can be obtained. An explanatory note provides detailed instructions concerning definitions, inclusions and exclusions.

Substitution of sampling units

Data processing and editing

Types of estimates

• total labour cost,
• hourly cost per employee and worker category,
• distribution by labour cost components.

The aggregated results are obtained by weighting, using as weights the number of hours actually worked.

Construction of indices

Weighting of sample results

Adjustments

Non-response

Other bias

Use of benchmark data

Use of other surveys

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

Sampling error / sampling variance

Non-response rate

Non-sampling errors

Conformity with other sources

Estimates for non-survey years

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 from the last survey on labour cost,

K89 = updated average proportion of additional costs for the year 1989 (additional costs/direct wages).

s89/s88 gives the rate of increase in earnings according to the six-monthly harmonized survey on earnings.

(1 + K89) is a coefficient of the updated cost structure. If the weight of the additional costs in relation to direct earnings has varied because of changes in legislation or collective agreements, the estimates take this into account.

Available series

History of the survey

The survey questionnaire is revised for every four-yearly survey, in accordance with EUROSTAT directives. The 1988 questionnaire introduced a section concerning collectively agreed, contractual or non-obligatory costs borne by the employer for the benefit of the workers. The 1992 questionnaire contained additional questions on the cost of temporary labour, and the questions on hours of work were modified. The 1992 survey was conducted in accordance with EEC Regulation No. 3942/92.

Documentation

Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT): Labour costs 1988 Vol. 1: Principal Results; Vol. 2: Results by size and region; Series 3C (1992, ibid.).

idem: Labour Cost - 1989-91 updating Series 3C (1993, ibid.).

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication