Netherlands (2)

Title of the survey

Labour Cost in Industry, Commerce, Banking and Insurance (Loonkostenonderzoek)

Organization responsible

Central Bureau voor de Statistiek (Central Bureau of Statistics - CBS)

Periodicity of the survey

Four-yearly (1988, 1992).

Objectives of the survey

To provide figures on labour cost for international comparisons. At the national level, labour cost data are used for comparisons between different branches of economic activity.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, hours of work and labour cost.

Reference period

The calendar year.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

The 1992 Labour Cost Survey covered the following: industry (i.e. mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas and water and construction), retail and wholesale distribution, hotels and catering; insurance, banking and finance. Out of scope are: agriculture; civil and public services; armed forces; household services; and transport.

Establishments

Establishments with ten or more employees.

Persons

Employees.

Occupations

Not relevant.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Employees are all persons covered by the Sickness Insurance Act (covering absence due to sickness) and those aged 65 or over who receive a wage or salary. Excluded are working proprietors, home workers, unpaid family workers, commission agents who do not receive a fixed salary, workers from temporary work agencies, young workers aged under 16, employees working abroad, cleaners and disabled workers. The following categories are identified separately:

full-time employees,
part-time employees, i.e. employees working less than 30 hours per week,
apprentices.

Labour cost

This is defined as the employer's total cost for wages and salaries, statutory payments, voluntary payments and subsidised services to employees. It includes:

Direct gross wages and salaries paid to all employees during the year including pay supplements, premium pay for overtime, night and weekend work;
Remuneration for time not worked, including all guaranteed payments, statutory or not; and remuneration for annual leave, vacation, public holidays, sick leave, etc.;
Bonuses and gratuities, productivity and incentive payments;
Food, drink, fuel and other payments in kind;
Employers' social security expenditure for sickness benefits, contributions to the health insurance fund, the industrial disability act, the act on general disability, the benefits act, unemployment benefits, exceptional medical expenses, general family allowances, and contractual social payments;
Expenditure on vocational training;
Cost of welfare services: cost of canteens, education, cultural recreational and related services;
Cost of recruitment and other costs such as transport of workers, cost of work clothes, etc.

Excluded are the cost of workers' housing borne by employers and some costs related to other services for employees such as grants to credit unions and cost of related services.

Hours of work

Data are collected on:

potential working hours, i.e. agreed daily working hours of full-time employees multiplied by the number of working days a year;
contractual working hours, obtained by deducting the average number of vacation days and public holidays from potential working hours;
hours actually worked per year, representing the agreed working time plus paid overtime, minus unpaid hours worked during normal periods of work and unpaid overtime; suspension of work due to bad weather, mechanical or electrical breakdown or lack of supply of materials or clients; meal breaks; absenteeism due to trade unions and employers' organisations activities, occupational injury or illness, maternity and parental leave, military or related service, civil responsibilities; time spent on travel from home to work and vice versa; reduction in working hours; etc.

International recommendations

The definition of hours actually worked used in this survey is close to that contained in the international recommendations. The concept of labour cost conforms to the international guidelines.

Classifications

Components of labour cost / compensation of employees

The components of labour cost may be grouped according to the major groups of the International Standard Classification of Labour Cost (ISCLC-1966).

Industrial

The Standard Industrial Classification of the Netherlands is used (SIC). This classification is based on the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC), Rev.2, 1968.

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

Labour cost statistics are classified by:

size of establishments (10-49 employees, 50-99, 100-199, 200-499 and 500 and more employees), and
region (North, East, South and West).

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling and reporting unit is the establishment.

Survey universe / sample frame

This consists of the General Business Register (GBR) of the CBS. The GBR aims at incorporating all social entities in the Netherlands, notably firms and institutions. All legal entities are listed with identifying characteristics such as name, address, employment size, economic activity, etc. The Register records the relations between legal entities and the statistical units.

Sample design

The survey is based on a one-stage sampling procedure. Stratification is by industry group, employment size and region. A new sample is drawn every four years. The 1988 survey covered about 8,500 sampled units, representing 70 per cent in terms of employees.

Field work

Data collection

Questionnaires are sent by mail in February-March of the year following the reference year.

Survey questionnaire

Not available.

Substitution of sampling units

In case of total non-response, the sampled units are not replaced.

Data processing and editing

The survey responses are coded and first checked manually, then by computer. Machine-editing is used. Reminders are sent to non-responding units. A number of plausibility checks are made by computer.

Types of estimates

Totals and averages of employment;
Structure of working time per employee by economic activity, size of establishments and region;
Totals, hourly averages and percentage distribution of labour cost.

In deriving average cost per employee, part-time employees are converted to full-time equivalents on the basis of hours worked.

Construction of indices

Not relevant.

Weighting of sample results

Aggregate data are obtained by multiplying the sample results per stratum by the raising factor, i.e. the ratio of the number of establishments in the universe to the number within the sample.

Adjustments

Non-response

No adjustments are made.

Other bias

No adjustments are made.

Use of benchmark data

Not relevant.

Use of other surveys

Not relevant.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

The GBR is virtually complete.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not available.

Non-response rate

In 1988, it was about 15 per cent in terms of reporting units.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not relevant.

Estimates for non-survey years

Estimates of labour costs for ten major industry groups are calculated quarterly on the basis of the Annual Earnings Survey and the Quarterly Earnings Survey.

Available series

The following standard tables are regularly published:

Hourly and monthly labour costs by economic activity;
Structure of hourly labour cost .

Data are available on request on magnetic tapes. Other tables are prepared by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT), which include average monthly and hourly labour costs, in national currency and in ECU and average number of hours actually worked during the year.

History of the survey

The Labour Cost survey was introduced in 1954. It is conducted under the recommendations of the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT). Up to 1984, it used to take place every three years. Since then, it is conducted every four years, and its scope has been extended during this span-time.

Documentation

Central Bureau voor de Statistiek: Sociaal-economische Maandstatistiek (monthly, Voorburg). idem: Statistical Yearbook of the Netherlands (annual, ibid.). Preliminary and final results of the EC Labour Cost Survey are also published by: EUROSTAT: Labour Costs 1988, initial results (Luxembourg, 1991). idem: Labour Costs 1988, volume 1: principal results, and volume 2: results by size classes and by regions (ibid., 1992).

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Data for individual firms are collected under the 1936 Act and remain confidential.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

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