Statistics Norway

Division For income and wage statistics | Department of Social Statistics

Statistics Norway

Postboks 2633 St. Hanshaugen, 0131 Oslo

This report covers all the main points related to quality that normally are covered and commented on in connection with the publication of statistics, and in this case statistics on earnings. The aim is to supply information on the quality of the data and statistics from Statistics Norway that are reported to and distributed by Eurostat in connection with the Structure of Earnings Survey 2018.

Statistics Norway base its statistics on earnings on the reporting through a-ordningen which was put into effect in 2015 in collaboration with Norwegian Tax Authority and the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration. The system for collecting and regulating procedures are covered by legislation under the A-opplysnings act.

Statistics Norway receives monthly registry data concerning jobs, remunerations, and taxes (including payroll taxes) through a-ordningen. This is a mandatory electronic reporting system for anyone who has employees or who pays salary, pension, or other benefits.

A-ordningen was established in 2015 and is a collaborative system between Statistics Norway, the Norwegian Tax Authority and the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration. A-ordningen provides a digital service, where the information is submitted electronically every month via the employer’s payroll system to the Tax Administration, which administers a-ordningen.

Anyone who has employees or who pays salary, pension or other benefits, such as social security, must submit an electronic form called an a-melding. This is regulated by law (A-opplysnings act) with a lower threshold amount of NOK 1 000 per year[1]. The a-melding does not cover self-employed.

In summary, A-ordningen is a collaborative system, while the A-melding is an electronic form submitted to this system. Every year, approximately 250 000 employers (per month about 190 000) submit information concerning 4.8 million employees and pensioners via the a-ordning. E.g. type of employment, start and end data for the job, contractual full-time equivalent (FTE) percentage, salary and remuneration in cash and kind, and pension. Employers are also required to report information about some deductions, employer’s national insurance contribution and financial activity tax. More information about a-ordningen is available at the Norwegian Tax Authority’s website (Skatteetaten.no).

Differences between Norwegian Wage Statistics and SES2018:

The industrial classification (economic activity) is in accordance with the revised Standard Industrial Classification SN07, which is based on the EU-standard of NACE Rev. 2.

The occupational classification is in accordance with Standard Classification of Occupations (STYRK-08), which is based on ISCO 08.

The sector classification is in accordance with the Classification of Institutional Sector.

Education levels are obtained from the National Education Database (NUDB). The classification is by the length of education according to the Standard for Educational Classification. There are grouped by length of education in accordance  Norwegian Standard Classification of Education (C617).

The variable 'Highest successfully completed level of education and training' in SES 2018 is classified using the International standard classification of education, 2011 version (ISCED 11) and the education level groupings are as follows: Low level: ISCED 0, 1 and 2 (Early childhood education (‘less than primary’ for educational attainment); Primary education; Lower secondary education), Medium level: ISCED 3 and 4 (Upper secondary education and post-secondary non-tertiary education), and High level: ISCED 5a, 5b and 6 (Short-cycle tertiary education; Bachelor’s or equivalent level; Master’s or equivalent level and Doctoral or equivalent level). 

The regional breakdown is based on the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS).

The SES 2018 statistics for Norway covers all economic activities defined in NACE Rev. 2 sections B to S, including optional section O.

All enterprises are included in Norwegian SES2018 and the size classes (corresponding to the number of employees) available are 1 to 9, 10 to 49, 50 to 249, 250 to 499, 500 to 999 and more than 1 000. The size class of enterprises employing less than 10 employees (1 to 9) is optional and covered in Statistics Norway’s statistics on earning and are also reported in the data to Eurostat for SES 2018.

The population is defined as follows:

1. Employees working in the reference week in the reference month (the reference week is established as the middle week that also includes the 16^th day of the month)
2. In addition, the employed must have received a fixed salary or hourly wage during the reference month

Mean annual gross earnings gives the actual gross earnings in the year 2018, as the accumulated remuneration in cash for all the months in the year. 

Mean monthly gross earnings in the reference month covers gross remuneration in cash before any tax deduction and social security contributions payable by wage earners and retained by the employer.

Mean hourly gross earnings are defined as gross earnings in the reference month divided by the number of hours paid during the same period.

Number of hours paid includes all the estimated normal and overtime hours worked and remunerated by the employer during the reference month.

Employees, local units and enterprises.

The population covered in SES2018 are all employees who received remuneration in cash for the reference month (September), as requested by the Regulation, in the enterprises and institutions belonging to the Private and Public sectors in the NACE Rev. 2 sections B to S and regardless size (number of employees).

As explained in point 2.1, only information on employee’s main job has been used in SES.

Norway.

Reference year – 2018.

Reference month – September.

Not applicable.

As of the year 2015 the Norwegian wage statistics are based on a full census from the establishment of a-ordningen.

A-ordningen is a coordinated reporting of wage and employment information to the Tax Administration, Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) and Statistics Norway.

Data is reported directly from the employers to the Tax Administration, via digital seamless, 24/7 open channels.

All employers who have paid wages, cash benefits or any other benefits must submit data each month, within the 5^th of the following month. The data thus covers all employees in all enterprises, therefore the Norwegian earnings statistics cover the whole population as defined by the current regulations. The aforementioned reporting also represents the main source for much of statistics Norway’s labor market statistics or constitutes a substantial part of the frame work or calculations.

The data source used for the compilation of four-yearly SES is available in monthly frequency.

Statistics Norway receives data monthly from Tax Administration, which administers a-ordningen.

After receiving data from EFF a number of controls and automatic measures are performed by Statistic Norway during the production of national wage statistics. The purpose is to safeguard the quality of the data for statistical purposes.

We distinguish between three types of Controls:

 a)     Automatic controls and measures

b)      Reports (monitoring)

c)       Manual controls

All the mentioned controls and checks are carried out throughout the year, regardless of publication.

As requested by the Regulation, SES data validation consists of global checks and plausibility checks. Global checks are necessary to ensure that microdata records consist of complete data. All microdata records contain data for all mandatory variables. Furthermore, plausibility checks on all variables were done to ensure that the data are reasonable and consistent with other variables. 

Though there were some observations that fell out of the Eurostat plausibility checks, we have decided to include these in the Norwegian SES datafiles after having checked the quality of these observations.

As explained in the  preceding paragraphs, information on employee’s main job only has been included in the compilation of the datasets for the SES 2018.

Every single employee who received remuneration for the reference month (September) in the enterprises and institutions belonging to the Private and Public sectors in the NACE Rev. 2 sections B to S are included in the SES2018 population. The only exceptions are a few observations with an error in age that were removed from the original dataset.

Not applicable.

Data collected via a-ordningen are full coverage as opposed to the annual sample surveys that were conducted before 2015. Furthermore controls and consistency checks carried out in Statistics Norway assure a good quality for data used in SES2018.

According to Regulation (EC) 530/1999 national authorities shall ensure that the results reflect the true situation of the total population of units with a sufficient degree of representativity. The data collected represent a full coverage of statistical units and are representative for reference population and in accord with all relevant classifications, both national and international standards.

Upon transmission to Eurostat, SES microdata are checked for completeness and consistency.

As mentioned in point 3.4, though there were some observations that were out of boundaries set by Eurostat’s plausibility checks, however we decided to include these in the Norwegian SES datafiles after having checked the quality of these observations and found no errors.

The purpose of the statistics is to provide an overview of levels of earnings and changes in earnings for all employees (wage and salary earners) independent of industry or working hours, and in accordance with user needs. Statistics are provided for each industry separately, broken down by sex, occupational group, age, and educational level in order to meet the demands of public and private users.

Major users are the Technical Reporting Committee on the Income Settlement, research and policy institutes, employee and employer organizations, Eurostat, ILO, OECD, the media, enterprises, and private persons. 

Based on the extensive use and feedback concerning Statistics Norway's earnings statistics, it is generally perceived that the statistics meet most user needs. Expressed needs for more statistics from the source are always an integral part of planning annual work programs within the field of labor market and earnings statistics.

SES microdata is provided for all mandatory variables for Norway, and for some of the optional variables.

Variable 1.5 - Collective pay agreement - (A15)

According to EEA Agreement page.27:

For Norway: (a) The variable "1.5 The existence of collective pay agreements covering the majority of employees in the observed unit" shall be optional;

We do not have sufficient information to determine this variable and we have therefor used the value ‘unknown’.

Variable 2.6 - Length of service in the enterprise - (B26)

We do not collect this variable directly for all employees and therefore create it where needed by utilizing information from tax information (end of the year certificates) for all years back to 1997. This implies that the maximum value for this variable will be ‘21’. This value is to be considered as ’21 years or more’.

Variable 2.8 - Type of employment contract - (B28)

We have information only for apprentices regarding this variable.

The value ‘Indefinite duration’ has been used for all other observations.

25/25 mandatory variables (for Norway)

1/9 optional variables 

The accuracy and reliability of the statistics is not affected by sampling errors or other biases connected with surveys since data collected represent a full coverage of all enterprises regardless of size, sector and economic activity (B-S).

No estimates of the sampling errors have been carried out, since data are compiled based on a census. The sampling error is therefore considered to be irrelevant.

The statistical process being a census leads to Statistics Norway not calculating the coefficient of variation for the SES 2018.

Not relevant.

None.

None.

Not applicable.

Measurement errors are defined as a discrepancy between the value of a variable reported by the respondent and the "true" value. Some errors might occur due to incorrect reporting of the information (measurement error). Such errors mainly arise because the respondent lacks the information or finds it difficult to calculate the value. This may be due to the following:

• In his daily work, the respondent uses other unit definitions than those used as a basis for the statistics for example other payment periods
• The respondent does not have the information that is requested
• The respondent himself has incorrect information
• The respondent misunderstands or fails to read the instructions. The respondent may misinterpret the content of the variables, or is imprecise in checking off on the form that will be read optically

However, the use of a-ordningen for reporting statistics has reduced the amount of measurement errors in reporting. This standard basically retrieves wage data directly from the enterprises’ wage and personnel systems, thus eliminating several possible sources of error that arise when using traditional forms. However, since differences between formal tax-oriented definitions concerning transactions of remuneration may arise, but such differences should be handled through correct calculation and the fact that Statistics Norway also utilize information regarding all months of the year.

Unit non-response

All employers who have paid remuneration in cash or kind must submit data concerning the employment and transactions each month the aforementioned actually occurs. The data thus covers all employees in all enterprises covered by the wage statistics.

Partial non-response

Non relevant. 

Non relevant.

Not applicable.

Processing errors are errors that can arise during computer processing of the reported data from the respondent and up to the point the statistics are completed. This applies to factors such as data transmission, registration, encoding, and error correction. Several controls and automatic measures are performed by Statistics Norway to reduce processing error at minimum.

Not applicable.

The accounting and fiscal year is identical to the calendar year in Norway. 

The imputation of the records with implausible values have been compiled with values imputed through minimum distance donor methods.

None.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The reference period for this survey is September 2018, the same as for the national earnings statistics.

The national earnings statistics for 2018 were published on 04/02/2019. The gap between the end of the reference year and the date of publication is thus approximately 35 days, from the reference month the difference is 4 months.

The SES data appeared for the first time on Eurostat database in October 2020, gap of about 20 months from the reference year.

Not applicable.

The Norwegian SES files were delivered to Eurostat on 04/08/2020. However further data transmissions have been necessary due to review in data.

The Quality Report for SES2018 was submitted on 23/12/2020.

See item 7.1 and 7.2.

Norway only constitutes one region in the European SES. National statistics on earnings are divided by regions and comparisons can be made.

The Norwegian earnings statistics are collected annually and comply with most mandatory points drawn up in the council regulation 530/1999, and subsidiary commission regulations.

Not applicable.

Statistics Norway has carried out the SES five times; for the reference years of 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018.

SES 2018 has been compiled using census data from a-ordningen, whilst sample surveys were conducted for all years before 2015. Data utilized for SES 2018 are more complete and differences with earlier years derive from survey sampling errors and sample design.

Comparisons between the years can be done but caution is advised, consult documentation for all comparisons with data from before 2015.

Since SES 2010 ISCO-08 is used for classifying occupations. 

Since SES 2014 the International Standard Classification of Education, 2011 version is used for classifying education.

Comparable national annual statistics on earnings were established for most industrial sections in 1997, a few sections were included later. The statistics are comparable from 1997 and are uniform and comparable among the sections. There has not been any change in the definitions of variables since 1997. The applied methods and models have however been subject to ongoing improvement based on increased knowledge and new requirements since they were established. These ongoing improvements have not affected comparability. 

New annual wage statistics for most industrial sections were established in 1997. The earnings statistics are uniform and comparable across sections and years.

Earnings statistics in 2008 and onwards utilize Standard industrial classification (SN2007). Wage statistics from 2008/2009 are thus according to the new standard. Due to this, wage statistics for 2007 and earlier years are not directly comparable for all industries to the statistics from 2008/2009 and the years later.  

Coherence with the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 3rd quarter 2018

The following is a short presentation and comparison of the Norwegian SES and the Norwegian LFS surveys. It is important to point out basic differences that possibly could be the cause of differences between the surveys as they are observed in the following tables. Statistics from the LFS are based on published figures.

Comparison of basic information on model assumption, sampling, units and purpose

In the following, several basic aspects of the LFS and SES are compared. One of the main reasons for different surveys is to meet different needs. Consequently, the statistics are based on assumptions that meet these specific user needs. The LFS survey monitors and documents quarterly changes in the composition and distribution of the work force. It is based on a sample survey covering individuals (the sample unit is family) that report on their status in the work force.

The earnings statistics on the other hand are structured to answer questions concerning the level and distribution of earnings. As described earlier, the source is a-ordningen (a mandatory monthly report on wage and employment information for all employers who have paid wages, cash benefits or fringe benefits). There is significant overlap between the populations of the two surveys, but the source of information is different and so are the sampling models. Furthermore, the two surveys have different reference periods and utilize different sources for control, verification and finally dissemination.

Both statistics are nonetheless used for explaining different properties of the same field of interest and in this capacity, we can use the LFS to understand the distribution and composition of jobs and employees as they are described in the earnings survey. Discrepancies should, where they occur, be explained and understood as a consequence of overlapping information.

Tabular results and comparisons with the LFS

See the attached document Coherence with LFS

For the tables that refer to distributions of full-time and part-time employees respectively by age, discrepancies are relatively small. Most of the differences between the two sources might very well be a result, at least to some extent, explained by the differences described. Differences in the definitions of full-time employees in particular may contribute to some of the observed discrepancies even though these should be viewed as small to minimal in this case.

The same factors mentioned above will also explain discrepancies between the tables that show the distribution of employees by industry.

In general, it seems that the distribution of employees by sex and industry and sex and age are very similar. 

Coherence with National Accounts

In the two tables in the attached document Coherence with National Accounts, comparisons between National Accounts and the SES are shown.

The first table gives the distribution of wages by industry as the estimated sum of annual wages from the SES and compensation of employees in the National Accounts. Statistics from the National Accounts are based on published figures for year 2018.

The other table compares the distribution of employees by industry. Discrepancies can mostly be explained through differences in definitions, reference periods between the two sources and revision of the NA data. Statistics from the National Accounts are based on published figures for 3rd quarter 2018.

The quarterly wage index is closely tied with annual statistics on wages. The wage concepts on which the two index-series are based (basic salaries and average monthly earnings) are identical with wage concepts used in annual statistics on wages. Changes in basic salaries are directly comparable between the two statistics. Changes in monthly earnings are, however, not directly comparable. The reason for this is that irregular payments and bonuses are estimated as an average over the year in the annual statistics while in the quarterly wage index the average of the aggregates is estimated for only the current quarter. Thus, the timing of disbursement influences the index and might therefore be subject to greater fluctuations between the quarters.

see item 8.3 - "Coherence - cross domain".

see item 8.3 - "Coherence - cross domain".

Statistics Norway does not publish any news release or other publications on SES 2018.

Not applicable.

Statistics Norway does not publish any results from the SES 2018.

In StatBank Norway - http://www.ssb.no/en/statistikkbanken, you can find tables concerning earnings broken down by economic activity, sector, occupation, sex, age, working hours, study field and education. 

Not applicable.

SES 2018 micro data will be released, anonymized, by Eurostat as SES scientific use files. Moreover, access to confidential data will be ensured through the Eurostat Safe center. Transfer of personal data outside the country’s borders is not allowed according to the statistics act. If you are a researcher at an approved research institution you can apply for access to data for a research project. In a situation where your institution is not on the list of approved research institutions, the institution must apply for approval. If your project will be processing personal data, you need a confidentiality permit. 

For details see: http://www.ssb.no/en/omssb/tjenester-og-verktoy/data-til-forskning.

Not applicable.

The same Internet addresses as mentioned in 9.3 apply for references to methodical documents; these documents can be found using the link "About the statistics".

Except from this metadata report, no documentation is available on this subject in english.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The purpose of the A-ordningen is to simplify enterprises reporting and to prevent them sending the same information to different stately institutions.

The Statistics Act of 2019, chapter § 9 prevent unauthorized disclosure of data that identify a person or economic entity either directly or indirectly.

Information of respondents are taken care of or destroyed in a proper manner. According to Statistics Act figures shall not be published in such a way that they may be traced to a particular respondent.

The anonymisation method consists of several confidentiality rules. Examples of such rules are:

- minimum frequency rule

- dominance rule

References

• Council regulation (EC) 530/1999, of 9 March 1999: Concerning structural statistics on earnings and labour costs.
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 698/2006 of 5 May 2006: on implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 as regards quality evaluation of structural statistics on labour costs and earnings (Text with EEA relevance).
• Commission regulation (EC) 1738/2005, of 21 October 2005: on implementing council regulation (EC) 530/1999 amending Regulation (EC) No 1916/2000 as regards the definition and transmission of information on the structure of earnings (Text with EEA relevance).
• Grini, Knut Håkon: Notater 74/2003 Lønnsstatistikk 1997-2006. Dokumentasjon av utvalg og beregning av vekter. Statistics Norway
• NOS D 362: Lønnsstatistikk 2005, Statistics Norway
• Särndal, Swensson, Wretman: Model Assisted Survey Sampling, Springer. Corrected fourth printing, 1997.
• Skatteetaten.no. (2019). About the a-ordningen. [online] Available at: https://www.skatteetaten.no/en/business-and-organisation/employer/the-a-melding/about-the-a-ordning/ [Accessed 26 Jun. 2019].