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Economic Resources Data Sources and Definitions

ECONOMIC RESOURCES: DEFINITIONS

Adult employees
employees aged 21 years and over, and those under 21 years who are paid at the full adult rate for their occupation.
Reference: Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6306.0).

Age pension recipients
people receiving full or partial Age pension excluding associated Wife's or Carer's pension. The qualifying age for Age pension eligibility for men is 65 years. Between 1 July 1995 and 2012, the qualifying age for women is gradually being raised from 60 to 65 years. At 30 June 2005 the qualifying age for females was 62.5 years.
Reference: Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Customers: A statistical overview.

Age pensioners — of persons of qualifying age
the number of aged pension recipients as a proportion of the estimated resident population (ERP) of persons who meet the age requirements for the age pension. In the years where the age requirement for females was a number of years plus six months the ERP was prorated.
Reference: Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

Average weekly ordinary time earnings of full-time adult non-managerial employees
refers to one week's earnings for the reference period attributed to award, standard or agreed hours of work. It is calculated before taxation and any other deductions have been made. Included in ordinary time earnings are agreed base rates of pay plus payment by measured result, such as bonuses and commissions. Excluded are non-cash components of salary packages, the value of salary sacrifice, overtime payments, and payments not related to the survey reference period, such as retrospective pay, pay in advance, leave loadings, and severance pay and termination and redundancy payments. Non-managerial employees are those who are not managerial employees as defined below, including non-managerial professionals and some employees with supervisory responsibilities.
Reference: Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6306.0).

Average weekly total earnings
average weekly total earnings of employees is equal to weekly ordinary time earnings plus weekly overtime earnings.
Reference: Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6306.0).

Chain volume measures
are obtained by linking together (i.e. compounding) movements in volumes, calculated using the average price of the previous financial year, and applying the compounded movements to the current price estimates of the reference year.
Reference: Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods (ABS cat. no. 5216.0).

Consumer price index
a measure of change over time in the retail price of a constant basket of goods and services which is representative of consumption patterns of all private households in the eight capital cities.
Reference: Australian Consumer Price Index: Concepts, Sources and Methods (ABS cat. no. 6461.0).

Couple
two people in a registered or de facto marriage, who usually live in the same household.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Couple only household
a household which contains a couple and no other persons.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Couple with dependent children household
a one-family household comprising a couple with at least one dependent child. The household may also include non-dependant children, other relatives and unrelated persons.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Dependent children
children under 15 years of age; and full-time students, aged 15 to 24 years, who have a parent in the household and do not have a partner or child of their own in the household.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Disability support pension recipients
persons receiving a pension on the basis of an assessed permanent physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairment and on their continuing inability to work or be retrained to work 30 hours or more per week within the next two years.
Reference: Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

Disposable income
gross income less personal income tax (including the Medicare levy).
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Employees
all wage and salary earners who received pay for any part of the reference period.
Reference: Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6306.0).

Equivalised income
equivalising adjusts actual income to take account of the different needs of households of different size and composition. There are economic advantages associated with living with others, because household resources, especially housing, can be shared. The equivalence scale used to obtain equivalised incomes is that used in studies by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and is referred to as the 'modified OECD scale'. The scale gives a weight of 1.0 to the first adult in the household, a weight of 0.5 for each additional adult (persons aged 15 years and over) and a weight of 0.3 for each child. For each household, the weights for household members are added together to form the household weight. The total household disposable income is then divided by the household weight to give an income that a lone person household would need for a similar standard of living.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Full-time employees
employees who normally work the agreed or award hours for a full-time employee in their occupation. If agreed or award hours do not apply, employees are regarded as full-time if they usually work 35 hours or more per week.
Reference: Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6306.0).

Full weekly benefit received by a single age pensioner
the amount paid to a single age pensioner, who passes the income and asset test for the full basic rate, excluding all allowances, indexed by CPI to the most recent year.
Reference: Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

Full weekly benefit received by a couple with two children
the maximum weekly social security benefit available to an unemployed couple with two children (one aged under 5 years and one aged 5 years or over but under 13 years). The calculation for 2005 includes unemployment benefits for each partner (currently Newstart), Family Tax Benefit Part A for each child and Family Tax Benefit Part B for the family. This calculation excludes any rent assistance which may be available.
Reference: Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

GDP (gross domestic product)
total market value of goods and services produced in Australia within a given period after deducting the cost of goods and services used up in the process of production but before deducting allowances for the consumption of fixed capital.
Reference: Australian System of National Accounts (ABS cat. no. 5204.0).

Gini coefficient
a measure for assessing inequality of income distribution. The measure, expressed as a ratio that is always between 0 and 1, is low for populations with relatively equal income distributions and high for populations with relatively unequal income distributions.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Government pensions and allowances
payments from government under social security and related government programs.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0)
.
Gross household disposable income per capita
where gross household disposable income, as measured in the Australian System of National Accounts, is gross household income less income tax payable, other current taxes on income, wealth etc., consumer debt interest, interest payable by unincorporated enterprises, net non-life insurance premiums and other current transfers payable by households. The population used is the mean resident population for the financial year.
Reference: Australian National Accounts: State Accounts (ABS cat. no. 5220.0).

Gross income
cash receipts, that are of a regular and recurring nature, before tax or any other deductions are made.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

High income persons
persons in the 9th and 10th income deciles after being ranked by their equivalised disposable household income.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Household
a group of related or unrelated people who usually live in the same private dwelling or a lone person living in a private dwelling.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Labour market program allowance recipients
the number of recipients of Job Search Allowance and Newstart Allowance in 1995 and 1996; Newstart Allowance in 1997 and 1998; and Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance for jobseekers [referred to as Youth Allowance (other)] from 1999.
Reference: Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

Lone-person household
a household which consists of a person living alone.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Low income persons
persons in the 2nd and 3rd income deciles after being ranked by their equivalised disposable household income.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Main source of income
that source from which the most positive income is received. If total income is nil or negative the principal source is undefined.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Managerial employees
employees who are in charge of a significant number of employees and/or have strategic responsibilities in the conduct or operations of the organisation and who usually do not have an entitlement to paid overtime.
Reference: Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6306.0).

Mean weekly income
the sum of the income of all households or persons in a population, divided by the number of households or persons in the population.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Middle income persons
persons in the 5th and 6th income deciles after being ranked by their equivalised disposable household income.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

One parent with dependent children household
a one-family household comprising a lone parent with at least one dependent child. The household may also include non-dependant children, other relatives and unrelated persons.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Ordinary time hours
award, standard or agreed hours of work, paid for at the ordinary time rate, including that part of annual leave, paid sick leave and long service leave taken during the reference period.
Reference: Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6306.0).

Own business or partnership income
the profit or loss that accrues to people as owners of, or partners in, unincorporated enterprises. Profit/loss consists of the value of the gross output of the enterprise after the deduction of operating expenses (including depreciation). Losses occur when operating expenses are greater than gross receipts.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Percentiles
when persons are ranked from the lowest to the highest on the basis of some characteristic such as their equivalised household income, they can then be divided into equal sized groups. Division into 100 groups gives percentiles. The highest value of the characteristic in the tenth percentile is denoted P10. The Median or the top of the 50th percentile is denoted P50. P20, P80 and P90 denote the highest values in the 20th, 80th and 90th percentiles.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Ratio of incomes
the ratio is calculated by dividing the highest value in a selected percentile by the highest value in a second selected percentile (see percentiles). For example, in 2003–04, the person at the top of the 80th percentile for Australia when ranked by equivalised disposable income had an equivalised disposable household income of $743. If this is divided by the equivalised disposable household weekly income of the person at the top of the 20th percentile ($299), the result is 2.49.
Reference: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0).

Real GDP (gross domestic product)
an aggregate measure of the value of economic production in a year. The series used are GDP chain volume measures (reference year 2003–04) and GDP at current prices.
Reference: Australian System of National Accounts (ABS cat. no. 5204.0).

Real household final consumption expenditure per capita
net expenditure on goods and services by persons, and expenditure of a current nature by private nonprofit institutions serving households. Includes personal expenditure on motor vehicles and other durable goods, the value of 'backyard' production, the payment of wages and salaries in kind and imputed rent on owner-occupied dwellings. Excludes the purchase and maintenance of dwellings by persons and capital expenditure by unincorporated businesses and nonprofit institutions. The measure is expressed in Australian dollars using chain volume measures, reference year 2003–04, and is based on the mean resident population of each financial year.
Reference: Australian System of National Accounts (ABS cat. no. 5204.0).

Real net national disposable income per capita
where real net national disposable income is a broad measure of economic wellbeing which adjusts the chain volume measure of GDP for the terms of trade effect, real net incomes from overseas (primary and secondary) and consumption of fixed capital. The population estimates are based on data published in the quarterly publication Australian Demographic Statistics (ABS cat. no. 3101.0) and ABS projections.
Reference: Australian System of National Accounts (ABS cat. no. 5204.0).

Reference person
the reference person for each household is chosen by applying to all household members aged 15 years and over the selection criteria below in the order listed, until a single appropriate reference person is identified:

• the person with the highest tenure when ranked as follows: owner without a mortgage, owner with a mortgage, renter, other tenure (for periods up to 2003 only),
• one of the partners in a registered or de facto marriage, with dependent children
• one of the partners in a registered or de facto marriage, without dependent children
• a lone parent with dependent children
• the person with the highest income
• the eldest person.