Slovakia - 1

Title of the survey

Structure of wages of employees in the Slovak Republic by occupation, age and education.

Organization responsible

Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic.

Periodicity of the survey

Annual.

Objectives of the survey

To assess the structure and distribution of earnings, by economic activity, occupation and selected employees' characteristics (sex, age and level of education); and to evaluate the relationship between monthly earnings and payments of employees' contributions and taxes.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, earnings, wage rates and hours of work.

Reference period

The calendar year, for each variable.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

The whole country.

Industrial

All branches of economic activity.

Establishments

All types and sizes of establishments and enterprises.

Persons

Employees with a contract of employment. Excluded are unpaid contributing family workers and the self-employed.

Occupations

All occupations are covered.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

Employees are defined as persons working under a contract of employment, in exchange for a remuneration, irrespective of citizenship and duration of contract.

Employees include wage earners and salaried employees, working directors with an employment contract, trainees, workers on probation, piece workers, commission agents, temporary and seasonal workers, and persons temporarily absent from work because of paid or unpaid (less than four weeks) leave, industrial dispute, sickness or accident, as well as persons temporarily present on payroll during notice period preceding retirement, resignation or dismissal. Apprentices are identified separately.

Excluded are home workers and working directors without employment contract, workers sub- contracted from other companies or temporary work agencies, persons on indefinite leave or lay off, women on maternity and extended maternity leave and men performing military or civil service.

Earnings

Data are collected on gross and net earnings.

Gross earnings include pay for normal time worked, premium pay for overtime, shift, night and holiday work, remuneration for time not worked, irregularly paid bonuses and gratuities and earnings in kind (food and drink, fuel, housing). They exclude cost-of-living, housing, transport and family allowances.

Net earnings are obtained by subtracting the employees' income tax and social security contributions from gross earnings.

Data on earnings are collected separately for full-time and part-time employees, by sex, age group, occupation and level of education.

Wage / salary rates

They include basic wages and salaries in cash and guaranteed payments in kind.

Data on wage rates are collected separately for full-time and part-time employees, by sex, age group, occupation and level of education.

Hours of work

Data are collected on normal hours of work and hours actually worked.

Normal hours of work are those fixed by collective agreements and establishments internal regulations.

Hours actually worked include normal hours of work; paid overtime; time spent on preparation of workplace, repair, maintenance, preparation and cleaning of tools, preparation of receipts, time sheets, reports, etc.; time spent at place of work during which no work is done but for which payment is made under a guaranteed employment contract; and time corresponding to short rest periods at the workplace including tea or coffee breaks.

They exclude hours paid for but not worked (for holidays, vacation, sick leave, time off, etc.).

Paid overtime hours are identified and measured separately.

Data on hours of work are collected separately for full-time and part-time employees, by sex, age group, occupation and level of education.

International recommendations

The definition of earnings conforms to the international guidelines, but benefits such as cost-of-living, housing, transport or family allowances paid directly by the employer, are excluded from the concept of earnings in the Slovak Republic.

The definitions of basic wage and salary rates (in cash and in kind) and hours actually worked used in this survey comply with the international recommendations.

Classifications

Industrial

Data on employment, earnings and hours of work are classified according to the Slovak Standard Industry Classification (OKEC). This classification is an adaptation of the Statistical Classification of economic activities of the European Communities (NACE, Rev. 1). Data are coded at the two-digit (division) level.

Occupational

Data on employment, earnings and hours of work are classified according to the Slovak National Occupational Classification System (KZAM). This classification conforms to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-88). Data are coded at the four-digit level.

Others

The survey data are classified by region (eight regions); type of ownership (nine categories: international; private; cooperative; state; municipal; ownership of associations, political parties and churches; foreign; international with preponderance of private sector; and mixed) and legal status of the statistical units; and according to employees' characteristics: sex, age, occupation and level of education.

Data on the structure of earnings are classified according to the following components:

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The sampling and reporting unit is the establishment in industrial activities and the enterprise in non-industrial activities.

Survey universe / sample frame

The sample frame covers some 51,089 units with one and more employees, registered in the Register of Establishments and Enterprises, which is kept by the Statistical Office. Establishments and enterprises are classified by legal status, size class and type of ownership. The Business Register is updated on an annual basis.

Sample design

The universe is stratified by sub-groups of economic activity, region and size class and within each stratum, simple random sampling is used. The sample is drawn by means of the Power Method, which takes into account the number of active and non-active reporting units. It consists of 1,972 units, which represents 3.9% of the sampling frame in terms of registered units, and some 22.1% of the total number of employees. The sample is updated on an annual basis.

Field work

Data collection

Data collection takes place during the first quarter following the reference year. The survey is conducted by means of diskettes, using a data collection software, and mailed questionnaires in the case of units which are unable to provide data by this method. Completed and returned questionnaires are put in electronic format using the recording software.

Survey questionnaire

Available in Slovak.

Substitution of sampling units

No substitution is applied. Units which have not replied because of a change of some kind (change of economic activity, gone into liquidation, etc.) are not taken into account in the sample.

Data processing and editing

Data are processed and edited by means of a specific software. Respondents receive assistance in case of difficulties in using the data collection software or completing the questionnaire. Incomplete questionnaires are complemented by telephone. Where missing data remain, the respective questionnaires are excluded from data processing.

Types of estimates

Totals (number of employees, number of hours worked and paid for and gross and net earnings); Averages (average monthly and hourly earnings); Structure of earnings by components; Distribution of employees by average earnings and earnings ranges; - by economic activity, occupation, region, type of ownership, and employees' characteristics.

Part-time workers are converted to full-time equivalents.

Construction of indices

Index numbers are not constructed.

Weighting of sample results

The survey results are grossed up using the inverse of the sampling fraction by economic activity and major occupational group.

Adjustments

Non-response

No adjustments are made for non-response.

Other bias

No adjustments are made for any other bias.

Use of benchmark data

None.

Seasonal variations

Not relevant.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

Not available.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not calculated.

Non-response rate

Approximately 44.2% in 1997.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not available.

The survey is ruled by the European Council Regulation (EC) No. 2744/95 on Wage Structure and Distribution. Data from the survey are checked and adjusted according to EUROSTAT's recommendations.

Available series

The principal series published include:

History of the survey

The survey was introduced in 1997 (with reference to the first quarter of 1996). No change has been made since then

Documentation

Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic: Structure of Wage of Employees in the Slovak Republic by Occupation, Age and Education (annual).

The survey results are published within 11 months after the reference year. Data can also be made available on diskette, upon request.

Web-site address: http://www.statistics.sk

See also:

CESTAT Statistical Bulletin, publication prepared jointly by the Czech Statistical Office, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, the Central Statistical Office of Poland, the National Commission for Statistics of Romania, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (quarterly).

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Data in respect of less than three units cannot be released.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

No data is published from this source yet. The statistics published in the ILO Yearbook of Labour Statistics are derived from the traditional enterprise reporting system (see below, under Other sources of data).

Other sources of data

(i) Current statistics of paid employment, average monthly earnings and hours actually worked are derived from a full-scale quarterly survey of enterprises with 20 and more employees (before 1997, enterprises with 25 and more employees). This survey (or reporting system) covers all branches of economic activity and all areas of the Slovak Republic. It is complemented with an annual, more detailed, labour report, which provides data by sex.

The following data, derived from this reporting system, are published in the ILO Yearbook of Labour Statistics:

Average paid employment by sex,

Average hours actually worked per month,

Average monthly earnings, by economic activity and in manufacturing, by industry group.

The corresponding quarterly series of average monthly earnings are published in the relevant tables of the Bulletin of Labour Statistics.

(ii) A quarterly survey entitled Information system on the average earnings by occupation is conducted by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family. It provides data on hourly wage rates and normal hours of work by occupation. The results of this survey, with reference to the second or third quarter of each year, are published in Statistics on occupational wages and hours of work and on food prices - October Inquiry results, a special supplement to the ILO Bulletin of Labour Statistics.