6306.0.55.001 - Microdata: Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 2014 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 11/06/2015   
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DATA ITEM LIST

The May 2014 Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours (EEH) comprised two components, the first being employer level information and the second a series of approximately 32 questions related to individual employees. Responses for individual employees are used to provide estimates of earnings and hours for specific groups of employees such as full-time/part-time employees and occupation groups.

Information provided on the questionnaire is supplemented by data sourced from the ABS Business Register (ABSBR), which allows the production of estimates of employees classified by industry, sector and employer size. Jurisdiction is also derived from a range of ABSBR classifications. Further information on the ABSBR is provided in the Explanatory Notes of Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 2014 (cat. no. 6306.0).

The following data items are available on the May 2014 EEH Expanded CURF:

    • Weekly total cash earnings
    • Weekly ordinary time cash earnings
    • Weekly overtime cash earnings
    • Weekly amounts salary sacrificed
    • Weekly total hours paid for
    • Weekly ordinary time hours paid for
    • Weekly overtime hours paid for
    • Sector
    • Rate of pay
    • Whether received casual loading
    • Full-time/Part-time status
    • Sex
    • Age
    • Managerial status
    • Employee status
    • Type of employee
    • Occupation major groups (1 digit ANZSCO 1st edition)
    • Occupation sub-major groups (2 digit ANZSCO 1st edition)
    • Occupation minor groups (3 digit ANZSCO 1st edition)
    • Industry division (1 digit ANZSIC 2006)
    • Employer unit size
    • Method of setting pay
    • Jurisdiction
    • Jurisdiction of registered agreement
    • Weight
    • Random person identifier
The survey was conducted on a sample of employees from a sample of employers in Australia, and as such users need to take this into account when deriving estimates from the CURF. The weight data item indicates how many employees in the survey scope population are represented by the individual unit record. As such, the sum of the weights for all unit records in a particular category provides an estimate of number or employees in that category.

Care should be taken in the interpretation and use of estimates of employment as the Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours is not designed specifically to produce estimates of numbers of employees. Users are directed to Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) as the primary source for official ABS estimates of employment.

Where estimates are derived from the CURF, it is essential they are calculated using the weighted values of a given data item. An employee's chance of selection in the survey varied considerably, depending on their employer's state, sector, industry and size. If an employee's survey weight is ignored, then no account will be taken of the employee's chance of selection, and the resulting estimates may be biased.

Users intending to purchase the Expanded CURF should ensure that the data they require, at the level of detail they require, is available in this product. The data items list for the Expanded CURF, including relevant population and classification details, can be found in the Excel spreadsheet available from the Downloads tab. This should be used in conjunction with the Glossary found in the Explanatory Notes tab.

The Expanded CURF contains 54,861 confidentialised employee records. Subject to the limitations of the sample size and the data classifications used, it is possible to interrogate the Expanded CURF, produce tabulations and undertake statistical analyses to individual specifications.

Weekly ordinary time, overtime and total hours paid for data were requested for all employees. However, hours paid for could not be provided for managerial employees where there was no relationship between earnings and hours. For these employees, a value of '0' has been applied to these data items in the Expanded CURF. It is therefore important to take this into account when undertaking analysis which includes weekly ordinary time, overtime and total hours paid or derivations such as hourly rates.