Employee Earnings and Hours Survey

CONTACT

Labour Statistics Centre
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Perth
Telephone (08) 9360 5305

DESCRIPTION

The Employee Earnings and Hours Survey provides detailed statistics on the level, composition and distribution of earnings and hours paid for, of employees. The survey collects statistics on the characteristics of both employers and their employees. It provides comprehensive information for various groups of employees, for example classified by industry, occupation and pay setting method.

The measure of employee earnings for estimates in the 2006 publication is regular wages and salaries in cash (including amounts salary-sacrificed), that is, cash earnings. The estimates have been produced in accordance with the revised conceptual framework for measures of employee remuneration, as outlined in Information Paper: Changes to ABS Measures of Employee Remuneration (ABS cat. no. 6313.0). This differs from estimates provided in previous publications of this series in that amounts salary-sacrificed by employees, that were previously excluded, have now been included in estimates of ordinary time cash earnings and total cash earnings.

Scope

The survey covered all employing organisations in Australia except:

• businesses primarily engaged in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing;
• private households employing staff; and,
• foreign embassies, consulates, etc.

The employees of employers covered in the survey are in scope if they received pay for the reference period, except:

• members of the Australian permanent defence forces;
• employees based outside Australia;
• employees on workers' compensation who are not paid through the payroll.

Reference Period

May

Frequency of Collection

Biennial

Method of Collection

A sample of approximately 9,000 employer (selection) units was selected from the ABS register of businesses for the May 2006 survey. Employers provided data for a sample of their employees. Data for approximately 57,000 employees contributed to the May 2006 survey.

DISSEMINATION

Release schedule

The preliminary publication is scheduled for release in early December of the same year as the reference period. The final publication is scheduled for release in March the following year.

Publications

Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 2006 (ABS cat. no. 6306.0)
Information Paper: Changes to ABS Measures of Employee Remuneration (ABS cat. no. 6313.0)

Geography

Data are available for Australia, and each State and Territory.

Data service

Customised reports, in a variety of formats, are available from the ABS upon request.

DATA ITEMS

Selected items
States and territories
Sector
Level of government (public sector)
Age (adult/junior)
Full-time/part-time status
Sex
Status of employee
Type of employee
Occupation
Industry
Employer unit size
Methods of setting pay

Educational occupations (Please note, the availability of data at this detailed level is limited by the size of the sample)
Education managers
Pre-primary school teachers
Primary school teachers
Secondary school teachers
Special education teachers
University lecturers and tutors
Vocational education teachers
Extra-systemic teachers
English as a Second Language teachers
Education officers
Education aides

Educational industry
Preschool education
School education
Post-school education
Other education

Historical Data

The collection began in 1974 and was conducted annually until 1981, when a government decision was made to continue the survey on a biennial basis. As a result, no survey was run in 1982 or 1984. However, in 1986, it was resumed on an annual basis until 1996, when it reverted to a biennial collection again. Results from surveys conducted after 1981 are not strictly comparable with those from surveys conducted between 1974 and 1981.

Note: Users should be aware that the sampling method used for the survey limits the usefulness of the data for comparison between years.

Previous Page

Next Page