Mauritius (1)

Title of the survey

Survey of Employment and Earnings.

Organization responsible

Central Statistical Office (CSO), Labour Section.

Periodicity of the survey

Half-yearly, in March and September, but with different objectives. The following description refers to the March survey. (See also under History.)

Objectives of the survey

To obtain continuous series of comparable data on the level of employment and earnings in large establishments.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, earnings and job vacancies.

Reference period

For employment: the last Thursday of March. For earnings: the month of March for monthly paid employees; and the last pay period (a week, a fortnight or a month) in March for other categories of employees.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All divisions of economic activity.

Establishments

Large establishments, i.e.:

agricultural establishments comprising (i) sugar cane plantations where ten hectares or more are harvested; (ii) tea plantations of two hectares or more; (iii) all flue-cured tobacco establishments, irrespective of acreage; and (iv) other agricultural establishments employing at least ten persons on the day of the survey;
non-agricultural establishments comprising (i) all central and local government departments, and (ii) all other establishments employing at least ten persons on the day of the survey.

Persons

All employees. Outworkers and expatriates are reported separately.

Occupations

In the March survey, data are not collected on individual occupations.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Employees are defined as all persons in regular or casual employment, including persons temporarily absent on paid sick leave, paid vacation or holidays, etc., persons holding managerial posts, family workers receiving wages or salaries, and paid apprentices. For the purpose of the survey, employees are classified into one of the following five categories, according to type of pay:

monthly-rated employees,
daily-rated employees,
piece-rated employees,
hourly-rated employees,
other rates and employees.

Earnings

Earnings are defined as all payments in cash made to all employees in connection with work done or time worked, before any deductions such as taxes, insurance and pension contributions paid by the employees. Amounts are collected separately on:

basic wages and salaries, including cost-of-living allowance,
overtime pay,
bonuses, commissions and other allowances (e.g. travel allowance) which are regularly paid at the end of each pay period,
other payments which are not regularly made every pay period (e.g. end-of-year and seasonal bonuses),
end-of-service gratuities, retirement and severance allowances, etc.,
arrears payments in respect of adjustments for wages, salaries, overtime, cost-of-living allowances, etc.

Gross cash earnings paid on a regular basis comprise the first three components listed above, and exclude pension payments, family allowances and other similar special benefits paid by the employer, as well as end-of-year, seasonal bonuses and arrear payments. Data on total gross earnings are collected separately for the five categories of employees mentioned under "Employment".

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

Not relevant.

International recommendations

The definition of regular earnings used in the survey conforms with the international guidelines, with the exception of earnings in kind which are not included here.

Classifications

Industrial

Data on employment and earnings are classified at the four-digit level of the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.2, 1968. Whenever an enterprise cannot give separate employment figures for its various establishments engaged in different activities, the whole enterprise is classified as such according to its main activity. For example, tea and sugar estates which have workers in the fields as well as in factories are classified in the agricultural sector. All government departments are classified under the group "central government". All municipalities and district councils are grouped under local government. Para-statal bodies are classified under the appropriate industrial group, except the Development Works Corporation and the Outer Islands Development Corporation, which are classified under the group Activities not elsewhere classified.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

Employment and earnings data are classified by employee category; In addition, employment data are classified by sex and employment size of establishments.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling and reporting unit is the establishment, defined, for the purposes of the survey, as an economic unit engaged in one, or predominantly one, kind of activity, for which separate figures of employment can be supplied.

Survey universe / sample frame

This consists of a list of large establishments which is continuously revised and updated on the basis of information available from various sources. In March 1994, a mailing list of 4,923 establishments, which included about 50 establishments in Rod

all the 2,202 establishments which, at the preceding round of the survey in March 1993, had been found to fall within the scope of the survey;
2,721 establishments which were selected from (i) establishments which, at the preceding round of the survey, did not fall within the scope of the survey mostly because they had fewer than 10 employees, or were not operational at the time of the survey but could have changed in the interval; and (ii) an additional list of establishments selected on the basis of indications which led to think that they might fall within the scope of the survey.

Sample design

The survey is based on a complete enumeration of registered large establishments. About 2,600 large establishments were covered by the survey carried out in March 1994.

Field work

Data collection

This starts in April and questionnaires are sent by post. In 1994, the questionnaires were sent to 4,923 establishments with the request that they be completed and returned to the CSO by 15 April 1994. The Labour Section of the CSO is responsible for the collection and compilation of data. Reminder letters are issued to non-responding establishments, later followed by personal visits to the more important ones (those employing more than 100 persons, based on previous surveys).

Survey questionnaire

This consists of seven sections:

Section I provides information on the establishment's characteristics, and the total number of employees who were paid for the specific reference date (the last Thursday of the survey month);
Sections II to VI collect data on the number of employees by category and sex, and their corresponding remuneration; for daily rated, piece-rated, hourly rated and other employees, information is also collected on the number of workdays/hours (excluding overtime) worked during the pay period, the total number of working days/hours (excluding overtime) paid during the pay period, the number of overtime hours and the number of absences not paid during the pay period.
Section VII is used to collect data on the number of expatriates and outdoor workers, by sex, and the number of job vacancies on the reference date.

Substitution of sampling units

Not relevant.

Data processing and editing

Questionnaires are checked for errors and omissions by the staff of the unit and then entered on computer for further processing. Inconsistent data are checked by telephone and if necessary, by visit to the establishment.

Types of estimates

The total number of employees by industrial group, category, sex, etc. is worked out from the survey data; totals and averages of earnings are estimated.

Construction of indices

Not relevant.

Weighting of sample results

Not relevant.

Adjustments

Non-response

In case of total non-response, estimates of employment are made using data supplied by them in previous rounds, current data from other establishments engaged in the same activity and information obtained from other sources.

Other bias

Not relevant.

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

Every effort is made to cover all large establishments.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not applicable.

Non-response rate

At the March 1994 survey, 66 per cent of establishments responded, representing about 82 per cent of total employment in such establishments.

Non-sampling errors

Not relevant.

Conformity with other sources

There is no other source of data on employment and earnings.

Available series

Published results include cross-tabulations of:

number of employees by major industrial group, category, sex,
average monthly and daily earnings by employee category and industrial group,
job vacancies by industry and sex,
employment in the sugar industry,
employment and earnings in the Export Processing Zone (EPZ).

History of the survey

The Survey of Employment and Earnings was first conducted in September 1966 and since then, it has been carried out on a half-yearly basis. The questionnaire was revised in September 1989 in order to collect employment and earnings data by various types of rates of pay. Up to 1991, the September survey used to collect data on wages, earnings and hours of work for the main occupations in the different industrial sectors of the country. Since 1992, the September round of the survey has been replaced by a more elaborate sample survey on occupational earnings and hours of work. The occupational data thus obtained are used in the computation of wage indices. During the same survey, the total number of employees engaged at the establishment as well as their earnings for the month of September, are also reported. This information provides estimates of the level of employment and average earnings in large establishments as at September of each year. The September survey covers all industrial groups that are important to the national economy (the criteria used are the number of establishments and the number of persons employed there); all important occupations (based on their numerical importance in terms of employees); large establishments (according to the same criteria as for the March survey); and time-rated as well as piece-rated wage earners and salaried employees. Employees such as apprentices, workers on probation, part-time workers and employees working on a temporary basis are excluded. This survey covers a sample of large establishments, stratified by industry group and employment size. An overall sample of about 20 per cent (around 500 establishments) is surveyed. In the two largest industry groups (manufacturing of wearing apparel and wholesale and retail trade), only ten per cent of the number of establishments are chosen. Within the strata, selection is proportional to employment size. The following concepts and definitions are used in the September round:

Wages, covering all payments made to employees (including salaried employees), in connection with work done during normal hours. These payments comprise basic wages and salaries, cost-of-living allowances, other guaranteed and regularly paid allowances and bonuses at the end of the pay period.
Earnings comprise all items of pay included in wages above, as well as premium pay for overtime work.
Normal hours of work refer to the hours of work offered by the establishment, in excess of which any time worked is remunerated at overtime rates.
Overtime hours comprise hours worked for which overtime premium is paid because they are outside normal hours of work.

Wage rate indices are calculated on the basis of the September round. They use a fixed base-weighted formula (the Laspeyres type), where the occupational structure and distribution of employees of the base are kept constant, with base year 1992. The weights of a given occupation is a combination of the number of employees and the wage rate of that occupation in the base year. To obtain indices of a higher level or for the economy as a whole, wages and salaries paid to all employees by industry group, are used to weight the individual industry group indices.

Documentation

Central Statistical Office: Bi-annual Survey of Employment and Earnings in large establishments (half-yearly, Port Louis). This publication contains methodological details and an analysis of the results of each survey round. It is released some three to four months after the survey reference period. idem: Digest of Labour Statistics (annual, ibid.). Since 1994, this publication has replaced the Bi-annual Survey of Employment and Earnings, which contains all data relating to labour force, employment and earnings, which are prepared by the CSO. Methodological information on the surveys is also included.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

The publication and release of data are subject to confidentiality rules, whereby tables may not reveal any of the particulars of individual establishments.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

The following data are published in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics:

Paid employment: general level and by industry (Tables 3A, 3B and 4);
Average daily earnings of wage earners, and monthly earnings of salaried employees, in non-agricultural activities and specific industries (Tables 16 to 21).

The relevant half-yearly series are published in the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.