Title: Award Rates of Pay Indexes, Australia.
Source: The Industrial Commissions in each State and the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission (the main federal wage-fixing organisation).
Wages:
The Award Indexes and Labour Cost Section, Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Geographical: Whole country.
Industrial: Mining; manufacturing, electricity, gas and water; construction; wholesale and retail trade; transport and storage; communication; finance, property and business services; public administration and defence; community services; recreation, personal and other services are included. Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, are excluded. The series is based on the Australian Standard Industrial Classification (ASIC-1978).
Occupational groups: All occupational groups based on the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, (ASCO, 1986).
Establishments: Not applicable.
Persons covered: Full-time adult wage and salary earners whose rates of pay are fixed in accordance with awards, determinations or registered collective agreements. Employees in the Defence Forces, in Agriculture, in Services to Agriculture and employees in private households are excluded.
The series is monthly and started in June 1985. Previously the series was published on a June 1976 basis for employees and wage earners separately.
Employment: Not applicable.
Hours of work: Standard weekly hours of work relate to the number of hours per week prescribed in awards, etc. for full-time workers. For certain occupations (e.g. teachers, university lecturers) no specific hours are prescribed. Data on normal hours of work are not published by the ILO.
Wages: Data on wages refer to wages and salaries. The award rates used in the computation of the indexes are those prescribed for a full week's work (excluding overtime). They generally comprise the base rate and any allowances that are applicable to all workers under a specific award classification. In ILO publications, data refer to indexes of weekly award rates of pay for employees.
The whole month.
Rates are prescribed in awards or determinations of Federal or State Industrial Arbitration authorities, or in collective agreements registered with them.
The basic source of the indexes is the May 1985 Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, a sample survey which includes information on occupations, awards and award classifications from approximately 68 000 selected employees. A sub-sample limited to full-time adult employees covered by awards, was selected and stratified by State, industry and occupational groups. The total number of different award classifications included in the indexes is 3 500, prescribed in 650 individual awards, determinations or collective agreements.
Data on award rates payable for 1985 and subsequent years were then compiled for each of the selected records (i.e. award classifications). Estimates of weighted average award rates were calculated by blowing up the data obtained from the sample of award classifications.
The change to a 1985 base for the indexes has resulted in the cessation of the Wage Earner Series. Previously, data were derived from the May 1976 Survey of Employees Earnings and published for employees and wage earners separately with June 1976 as the base.
Australian Bureau of Statistics: "Award Rates of Pay Indexes, Australia", Catalogue No. 6312.0 (monthly) (Canberra, 1988). The data are published after a lapse of two months.
idem: "Year Book Australia 1987", Catalogue Nos. 1300.0 and 1301.0 (annual) (Canberra, 1987).
idem: "A Guide to Labour Statistics", Catalogue No. 6102.0 (Belconnen, A.C.T., 1986).