Peru (2)

Title of the survey

Encuesta de Sueldos y Salarios en Lima Metropolitana (Survey of Wages and Salaries in the Metropolitan Lima)

Organization responsible

Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción Social, Dirección Nacional de Empleo y Formación Profesional, Sub-Dirección de Estudios de Empleo.

Periodicity of the survey

At two-monthly intervals, in February, April, June, August, October and December every year.

Objectives of the survey

To obtain information on the levels and trends in wages and salaries, hours of work, occupations and length of stay in the enterprises, shifts, coverage of collective bargaining, and individual characteristics of workers in private sector enterprises.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, earnings and hours of work.

Reference period

Employment: the month. Earnings: the month (for salaried employees) and the week (for wage earners). Hours of work: the last week of the reference month (for wage earners).

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The metropolitan area of Lima (Province of Lima and Constitutional Province of Callao).

Industrial

All branches of economic activity in the private sector.

Establishments

Enterprises in the private sector with 10 or more workers, which submit their payrolls every year to the Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción Social.

Persons

Employees in the private sector registered on payrolls in the reference months. Working proprietors, unpaid family workers, home workers and certain categories of employees are excluded (see under Concepts and definitions: Employment).

Occupations

The survey collects information by occupational group (executives, manual workers and non-manual workers) and for the specific occupations of the individual workers in a sub-sample.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Employees include workers who are employed by an enterprise or employer and who receive wages or remuneration in return for the work they perform. They include persons temporarily absent from work because of vacation, paid leave, sickness or accident and other leave with pay, and commission agents, casual, temporary and seasonal workers, piece workers and workers on probation. The following are excluded: apprentices and trainees, part-time workers (working less than four hours a day), workers sub-contracted from other enterprises, retired workers, persons on unpaid leave or without wages or salary (because of suspension, labour dispute, sickness, accident, etc.). Employees are classified in three occupational categories:

executives: persons whose principal function is to direct, organize and coordinate the activities of the enterprise; directors, managers, chairmen of boards of directors, etc., are regarded as executives;
non-manual workers: administrative, technical and office workers who perform a function within the enterprise which is intellectual rather than physical; they are usually paid by the month or twice monthly; they include office assistants, filing clerks, secretaries, typists, accountants, engineers, etc.;
manual workers: persons chiefly occupied on work which requires a physical rather than an intellectual effort; their duties are directly related to the various activities of the production process; they are usually paid by the week.

Detailed data are also collected on a sub-sample of individual workers on the payrolls, by sex, main occupation and length of service.

Earnings

This refers to the total of earnings in cash paid to each occupational category, as recorded in the payrolls. Data are collected for the following components:

total gross earnings before deductions; monthly for executives and non-manual workers, weekly for manual workers;
Total payment for overtime, for non-manual workers and manual workers;
total payments as commission, for executives and non-manual workers;
other non-regular payments: vacation bonuses, allowances for the birth of a child, deaths and birthdays; food allowances, allowances for holidays worked, refunds, schooling, bonuses, benefits, transport allowances, special tasks, allowances for summer hours of work, etc.

Data are also collected separately on the total earnings (gross, before deductions) paid to workers who are on vacation during the reference period, by occupational category (and the corresponding number of workers). This total is included in the total gross earnings. In addition, detailed data are collected on the earnings of a subsample of individual workers on the payrolls, by sex, main occupation and length of service. Their gross earnings are broken down as follows:

basic wage or salary, including workers' Sunday and holiday wages, and piece work;
cost of living allowance or wage adjustment clause;
other regular allowances and bonuses; for night work, shift work, breakfast or light meal, technical specialization or expertise, production, work or height, travel or transport, family allowances, etc.;
commission payments;
payment for overtime;
other non-regular payments; reinstatement, holidays worked, benefits, etc.;
total gross earnings before deductions.

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

Data are collected concerning:

total normal hours worked by all manual workers during the last week of the reference month, including hours of public holidays, which appear as eight hours, as remuneration is also normal;
total hours of overtime worked by all non manual workers and manual workers separately during the reference period;
total hours of overtime worked by each non-manual worker and manual worker selected in the subsample;
total hours actually worked by each manual worker selected in the subsample during the reference week.

The survey covers only the hours actually worked by manual workers. For non-manual workers, the normal hours are eight per day for 30 calendar days (in recent times 22 working days have in fact been used). These are the hours laid down by a collective agreement and by the internal regulations of the enterprise.

International recommendations

The definition of earnings used in this survey includes all payments in cash recorded in the payrolls, whether regular or non-regular, excluding payments in kind. The definition of hours of work of manual workers conforms with the concept of hours actually worked contained in the international recommendations.

Classifications

Industrial

The International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities is employed. At present, a modified revision of ISIC, Rev. 3, 1990 is used; previously the ISIC, Rev. 2, 1968 was used.

Occupational

The occupational classification for the census of america (COTA - 1970) is used, which is compatible with the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-68) at all levels.

Others

The data are classified by sex, occupational category and occupational group (level of skill), and by size of enterprise, in four classes: 10 to 49 workers; 50 to 99; 100 to 499 and 500 workers and over.

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The reporting unit is the enterprise, including all branches or establishments located in Metropolitan Lima (branches in the provinces are not covered). At a second stage, the statistical unit is the individual worker in the enterprise selected.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sample frame is the file of copies of payrolls of enterprises in the private sector, submitted every year to the Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción Social. This file covers about 6,000 enterprises in Metropolitan Lima. It is brought up to date every year on the basis of enterprises registered in the national central labour register (RNCT) and the compulsory submission of payrolls summaries which takes place in June each year. The sample frame is brought up to date every three or four years.

Sample design

At the first stage, probability sampling with optimum allocation is used; this consists in the first place in ascertaining the values of the standard deviations in the universe. This is done by taking the average of earnings by occupational category and branch of activity (agriculture, mining, etc.). The universe is then stratified by sub-groups of activity and size. 604 enterprises were selected from the different strata with the following sampling fractions:

1/2 for enterprises of size group 1 (10 to 49 workers), i.e. 385 enterprises;
1/3 for enterprises of size group 2 (50 to 99 workers), i.e. 60 enterprises;
1/5 for enterprises of size group 3 (100 to 499 workers), i.e. 70 enterprises;
1/1 (census) for enterprises of size group 4 (499 workers and over), with 89 enterprises.

At a second stage, workers are selected within each enterprise. Within each stratum a maximum number of workers was selected in accordance with the size of the enterprise: size group 1: 5 workers; size group 2: 10 workers; size group 3: 20 workers and size group 4: 25 workers; representing a total of 6,000 workers distributed over the various strata. Information is collected on these individually; in practice, the most important data from their pay slips. The sample is updated regularly with each month of the survey; enterprises which have not replied because of a change of some kind (difficulty in locating, gone into liquidation, change of economic activity, etc.) are not taken into account in the sample. The sample is renewed every three or four years.

Field work

Data collection

This takes place every two months, on the first days of the month following the reference month and in situ, with specialized interviewers and field supervisors extracting the data from the payrolls.

Survey questionnaire

The questionnaire contains:

data concerning the enterprise (identification, economic activity, etc.);
Section A: data concerning workers and hours worked, shifts, total earnings by occupational category and components and data on holidays (total number of workers and total earnings by occupational category);
Section B: selection of individual workers, individual information on the workers (sex, occupational category, date of entry, main occupation and date of birth) and gross earnings by components;
Section C: collective bargaining and increases and wage adjustments granted.

Substitution of sampling units

Not relevant.

Data processing and editing

Data are processed by computer. Replies are coded; checking is carried out in the Review and Coding Unit by specialized personnel, and the data are processed by the computer office. The data are then checked by computer and by the staff responsible for verification. In cases of doubtful data the enterprises are contacted. Where the reference period reflects an abnormal situation (e.g. a strike), the survey is not applied if all workers are affected. If only the manual workers are involved, information is gathered on the non-manual workers only; and vice versa.

Types of estimates

Total employment by occupational category. Totals and averages of earnings and hours of work and distribution of workers by economic activity, size of enterprise and collective bargaining situation. In the estimates, only the earnings of non-manual workers and executives who have worked during the reference month (i.e. for more than 15 days) and of the manual workers who have worked during the reference week (more than three days or more than 24 hours) are taken into account. Two types of average earnings are calculated:

an overall average, deducting other non-regular payments from the total gross earnings, by occupational category, and dividing the result by the total number of workers by occupational category;
a real average, deducting the sum of total payments for overtime hours, total payment of commission and other non-regular payments from the total gross earnings by occupational category, and dividing the result by the total number of workers by occupational category.

Construction of indices

Two indices are constructed: the index of nominal wages and salaries, which measures the evolution of earnings with reference to a base year (1979) and the index of real wages and salaries, which is deflated using the consumer price index.

Weighting of sample results

The number of manual and non-manual workers measured in the survey is multiplied by the reciprocal of the sampling fraction, to give an estimate for the universe.

Adjustments

Non-response

Not relevant.

Other bias

None.

Use of benchmark data

The data from the economic census carried out by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (INEI) are used.

Seasonal variations

Not relevant.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

The sampling frame covers enterprises which forward copies of their payrolls every year to the Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción Social. It is estimated that about 70 per cent of the total population is covered.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not calculated.

Non-response rate

Normally about one per cent with regard to enterprises and workers. A rate of 0.8 per cent is generally considered normal.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

The results are compared with the data employees in the private sector from the survey of employment levels (households survey), which collects similar data and with the data of the economic census carried out by the INEI.

Available series

averages of nominal and real wages and salaries;
indices of monthly salaries and daily wages, by occupational category, collective bargaining situation;
indices of real wages and salaries by economic activity;
distribution of workers by occupational category, economic activity, size of enterprise and collective bargaining situation;
average earnings by occupational category, economic activity, size of enterprise, collective bargaining situation, age group, seniority in the enterprise, etc.

History of the survey

The Survey of Wages and Salaries in Metropolitan Lima has been carried out since 1958. Before 1986, the survey took place twice a year (in March and September) and covered enterprises with 10 or more workers, using a system of mailing and telephone calls. It covered a sample of approximately 2,300 enterprises, with an 80 per cent response rate. Agriculture, mining and electricity, gas and water were excluded. In 1986, major methodological changes were introduced, with a reduction of the sample, extension to all economic activities, collection of separate data for three occupational categories and selection of a subsample from individual workers. Data were collected through direct visits to the enterprises, and the questionnaires were modified regularly and new variables included. It is envisaged that, in the years to come, a new sample will be used and part of the questionnaire will be modified, particularly Section B, concerning data on individual workers.

Documentation

Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción Social: Boletín de Sueldos y Salarios en Lima Metropolitana (six times a year, Lima). The results appear two months after the survey reference month. The results can also be obtained on request on diskettes which are IBM-PC compatible.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Not available.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Average of hours actually worked by manual workers, and
average daily earnings of manual workers and monthly earnings of manual and non-manual workers,

in non-agricultural activities and in specific industries, are published in Tables 11 to 15 and 16 to 21 of the Yearbook of Labour Statistics. Data are also published on wage rates, earnings, normal hours of work and actual hours worked, by occupation and industry, in Statistics on occupational wages and hours of work and on food prices - October Inquiry results, a special supplement to the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.