Slovakia - 2
Title of the survey
Labour cost survey.
Organization responsible
Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic.
Periodicity of the survey
Annual.
Objectives of the survey
To collect information on and assess the level and structure of
labour cost incurred by employers in employing labour, by
economic activity, region, type of ownership, legal status and
size class of enterprises.
Main labour topics covered by the survey
Employment, earnings, hours of work and labour cost.
Reference period
The calendar year.
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
Data are not collected by occupation.
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, casual, 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.
Labour cost
Total labour costs represent the sum of costs
incurred by employers for employees' remuneration, recruitment
and training, as well as social welfare services. They include
both direct labour costs and indirect labour costs, minus
subsidies.
Direct labour costs include:
- Direct remuneration and bonuses: i.e. basic wages and
salaries for time worked or work done; overtime; bonuses (of
which, bonuses paid at each monthly pay period and bonuses paid
at longer pay periods); additional payments (for noise, risk,
difficult work, night work, work on Saturdays, Sundays and public
holidays, shift work, etc.); wages and salaries in kind; and
other payments considered as wages and salaries (13th or 14th
month, holiday wages, etc.);
- Payments for days not worked: annual vacation, other paid
leave, public holidays; paid vocational training time; and time
off granted with pay due to employers' and employees' reasons;
- Payments to employees' saving schemes;
- Bonuses for being on call to work;
- Bonuses based on profit;
- Other direct costs: i.e. company products, cost of staff
housing, company cars, etc.
Indirect labour costs include:
- Statutory social security and insurance schemes
contributions: i.e. in respect of employees' pension, sickness,
health, unemployment and occupational accidents;
- Supplementary social security contributions, in respect of
supplementary pension, sickness, unemployment and other insurance
schemes;
- Employers' imputed social contributions, including direct
payments to employees regarded as social security costs (e.g.
payments to employees in the event of sickness, and severance and
termination pay);
- Vocational training costs;
- Remuneration of apprentices (of which: bonuses; social
security contributions on behalf of employees and other
expenditure for apprentices);
- Recruitment costs;
- Social benefits, i.e. cost of welfare services, such as
canteens and meal vouchers, anniversary awards, education,
cultural, recreational and related services, and other
contributions to social funds;
- Taxes considered as labour cost.
Subsidies, i.e. the amounts received which are intended to
refund part or all of the cost of direct remuneration, are
deducted from total labour costs. Organizations based on
contributions and budgetary organizations report and deduct the
subsidies received from sources other than the State budget.
Data on labour costs are collected for all employees together,
without any distinction (except for apprentices).
Hours of work
Data are collected on the total number of hours actually worked
on an annual basis, separately by all employees (part- and
full-time workers) and apprentices. These include normal hours
of work; 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.
Hours actually worked exclude hours paid for but not worked (for
holidays, vacation, sick leave, time off, etc.).
International recommendations
The components of labour cost and the concept of hours actually
worked used in this survey conform to the international
guidelines.
Classifications
Components of labour cost
Data are
classified by major group and sub-items of labour cost (see
above, under Concepts and Definitions). This classification
corresponds to the demand of Slovak users. Slight modifications
are brought to the ordering of the components to meet EUROSTAT's
requirements and ensure comparability with the European Community
statistics on the structure of employers' labour costs.
Industrial
The survey data are classified according to the Statistical
Classification of economic activities of the European Communities
(NACE, Rev. 1), which is itself based on the International
Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities
(ISIC), Rev.3, 1990.
Occupational
Not relevant.
Others
Labour cost data are classified by region (eight regions), type
of ownership (nine categories), legal status and size class (0-10
employees, 11-24, 25-49, 50-99, 100-249, 250-499, 500-999, 1,000
and more employees) of enterprises and establishments.
Sample size and design
Statistical unit
Since 1997, the sampling and reporting unit is the establishment
in industrial activities and the enterprise in non-industrial
activities. Before 1997, it was the enterprise in all
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 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
Average annual, monthly and hourly labour costs;
Structure of labour costs;
Average number of employees and hours actually worked.
Part-time workers are converted to full-time equivalents (two
part-time employees are equivalent to one full-time employee).
Construction of indices
Not relevant.
Weighting of sample results
For each stratum (region, size class and legal status) the sample
results are extrapolated using weights calculated as follows: W
= N*m / n,
where,
n is the number of units in the sample,
N is
the number of units in the population,
m is the rate of active and
non-active units.
Adjustments
Non-response
No adjustments are made for non-response.
Other bias
Standard errors are calculated and extreme values are imputed on
the basis of the mean value in the given stratum: values which
are out of the range mean ± 2 standard error are given the mean value x.
Use of benchmark data
Not relevant.
Indicators of reliability of the estimates
Coverage of the sampling frame
Not available.
Sampling error / sampling variance
Standard errors are calculated, but not published.
Non-response rate
About 19%.
Non-sampling errors
Not available.
Conformity with other sources
The wage data obtained from the Labour Cost data are compared
with the wage data obtained the wages surveys and extreme values
are excluded from the Labour Cost survey results.
Estimates for non-survey years
None.
Available series
Published tables include:
- Annual labour costs per employee,
- Monthly labour costs per employee, and
- Hourly labour costs, classified by section and division of
economic activity, region, size class of reporting units, type of
ownership and legal status;
- Hourly labour costs cross-classified by:
- section of NACE Rev.1 and size class,
- section of NACE Rev.1 and type of ownership,
- type of ownership and size class
- Structure of labour costs, by section and division of
economic activity, region, size class of reporting units, type of
ownership and legal status;
- Employees and hours actually worked by economic activity,
region, size class, type of ownership and legal status.
History of the survey
The Labour Cost survey is conducted on the basis of EUROSTAT's
recommendations and follows the European Council Regulation (EC)
No. 23/97 on statistics on the level and structure of labour
costs. It was introduced in 1995, with reference to 1994. At
that time, it excluded budgetary organizations, organizations
based on contributions and non-profit organizations. It was
repeated in 1997 and 1998, with reference to 1996 and 1997,
covering all types of organizations, enterprises and
establishments.
In 1998, the structure of labour costs was adjusted according to
EUROSTAT's recommendations; however, some differences between the
Slovak structure and the EU classification of labour costs still
remain.
For the next survey, it is planned to reduce the sample size and
to modify the weighting procedure.
Documentation
Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic: Total labour cost
(annual) (Bratislava). The results are published within eleven
months after the reference year. The survey results can also be
made available on diskette, upon request.
Confidentiality / Reliability criteria
Data in respect of less than three establishments are not
disseminated.
Other information
Data supplied to the ILO for publication
Statistics of average hourly labour cost in manufacturing are
published in the ILO
Yearbook of Labour Statistics.