Structure of earnings survey 2010 (earn_ses2010)

National Reference Metadata in ESS Standard for Quality Reports Structure (ESQRS)

Compiling agency: Statec Luxembourg


Eurostat metadata
Reference metadata
1. Contact
2. Statistical presentation
3. Statistical processing
4. Quality management
5. Relevance
6. Accuracy and reliability
7. Timeliness and punctuality
8. Coherence and comparability
9. Accessibility and clarity
10. Cost and Burden
11. Confidentiality
12. Comment
Related Metadata
Annexes (including footnotes)
 



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1. Contact Top
1.1. Contact organisation

Statec Luxembourg
1.2. Contact organisation unit

Labour Market and Education (SOC2)
1.5. Contact mail address


2. Statistical presentation Top
2.1. Data description

[Not requested]
2.2. Classification system

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.
2.3. Coverage - sector

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.
2.4. Statistical concepts and definitions

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.
2.5. Statistical unit

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.
2.6. Statistical population

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.
2.7. Reference area

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.
2.8. Coverage - Time

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.
2.9. Base period

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.


3. Statistical processing Top
3.1. Source data

[Not requested]
3.2. Frequency of data collection

[Not requested]
3.3. Data collection

[Not requested]
3.4. Data validation

[Not requested]
3.5. Data compilation

[Not requested]
3.6. Adjustment

[Not requested]


4. Quality management Top
4.1. Quality assurance

Not available.
New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.
4.2. Quality management - assessment

[Not requested]


5. Relevance Top
5.1. Relevance - User Needs

The structure of earnings survey (SES) provides a rather complete picture of wages, hours worked and the personal characteristics of workers. As such, it is a unique source in Luxembourg. Alternative sources are less complete or less reliable. The social security records provide information on wages and hours worked. These records also provide some information on the workers’ characteristics, but two crucial items are missing: the level of education and the occupation. There is also information on wages in the Labour Force Surveys (LFS) and in EU-SILC. These surveys provide a wealth of information on the workers’ personal backgrounds. Unfortunately, the information on wages is less reliable. Indeed, the wages are self-declared by the workers, and are missing in several cases. Furthermore, there is no precise and reliable information on the amount of hours worked. Another drawback of the two latter sources is that they exclude the workers that work in Luxembourg, but live outside the country. These cross-border workers make up 44% of Luxembourg’s total wage employment. The SES covers 87% of Luxembourg’s total wage employment, much more than the LFS.

 

Summary of national core users

The most important national core user is STATEC. The other national core users include ministries, administrations, foreign embassies, researchers, media, employers’ federations, trade unions, companies from the private sector, as well as students from high-schools and universities.

 

Description of their main needs including an assessment of their level of satisfaction with the data offered

The users are mainly interested in breakdowns of wages along several variables. The most popular variables are sector, occupation, and educational level. Whereas most of the users are fine with tabular analyses, the researchers are also interested in a direct access to the microdata.
5.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction

There is no systematic and formal assessment of the users’ satisfaction. Nevertheless, the small size of the national user community enables STATEC to have a direct contact with the users. As a result, STATEC can be very responsive to the users’ needs. The informal feedback suggests that the users’ needs are generally satisfied.
5.3. Completeness

[Not requested]
5.3.1. Data completeness - rate

[Not requested]


6. Accuracy and reliability Top

-
6.1. Accuracy - overall

[Not requested]
6.2. Sampling error

This sections documents the sampling errors of the Structure of Earnings Survey 2010.
6.2.1. Sampling error - indicators

The tables in the attached document Sampling errors show the coefficient of variation for the average monthly earnings and average hourly earnings, broken down by the characteristics of the workers and the enterprises they are working in.



Annexes:
Sampling errors
6.3. Non-sampling error

This sections documents the non-sampling errors of the Structure of Earnings Survey 2010.
6.3.1. Coverage error

No problem of under-coverage is known. However, there has been some over-coverage, i.e. the sample included units that were out of scope or did not exist in practice. The reasons for this over-coverage stem from a discrepancy between the administrative files used for the sampling and the real world, and can be put into 2 categories:

  1. The local unit has less than 10 employees in practice.
  2. The local unit does not exist. The reasons for this non-existence can be bankruptcy, merger, liquidation or discontinuance of business.
6.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate

The table below gives an estimate of the over-coverage rate with respect to the initial sample. Furthermore, the table distinguishes the 2 above mentioned causes for over-coverage.

 

(1) < 10 employees 1.6%
(2) Unit does not exist 1.2%
TOTAL 2.8%
6.3.1.2. Common units - proportion

[Not requested]
6.3.2. Measurement error

A non-negligible amount of measurement errors was noticed for the earnings variables and the working time variables, as shown in the table below:

 

B32 Number of hours paid during the reference month
B31 Number of weeks to which the gross annual earnings relate
B321 Number of overtime hours paid in the reference month
B42 Gross earnings in reference month
B421 Earnings related to overtime
B423 Compulsory social security contributions paid by the employer

 

Internal quality and plausibility tests have detected incoherencies between these variables, which are in fact inter-linked. These incoherencies stem from a misunderstanding of the questionnaire and from typos. The errors were corrected via direct follow-up with the local units or automatically. The automatic corrections are based on provisions from the Labour and Social Security acts.

The variable on Annual Holiday Leave (B33) had to be recalculated. Ambiguity in the questionnaire has led to erroneous responses. Values have been imputed, based on legal minima and minima set by (known) collective agreements. As a result, the values of the variable B33 are likely to be underestimated.
6.3.3. Non response error

The table below shows the unit response rate. This rate is defined as follows:

 

 

The “Ineligible Units” are those mentioned in section 6.3.1. The “Exploitable Units” are those for which there was a response and who have passed the quality and plausibility checks. 

 

  Local Units Employees
a) Sampled 2.515 21.543
b) Ineligible 71 261
c) Exploitable 2.211 19.439
Unit Response Rate: c / (a - b) 90% 91%
6.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate

[Not requested]
6.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate

[Not requested]
6.3.4. Processing error

None
6.3.4.1. Imputation - rate

There has been no imputation of missing values. An extensive follow-up allowed reducing the problems of item non-response and missing values.
6.3.5. Model assumption error

Does not apply.
6.4. Seasonal adjustment

[Not requested]
6.5. Data revision - policy

[Not requested]
6.6. Data revision - practice

[Not requested]
6.6.1. Data revision - average size

[Not requested]


7. Timeliness and punctuality Top
7.1. Timeliness

The reference month for the Structure of Earnings Survey is October 2010. The final data have been available since the 27th of June 20012. The first results are expected to be published by the end of 2012.
7.1.1. Time lag - first result

[Not requested]
7.1.2. Time lag - final result

[Not requested]
7.2. Punctuality

The table below shows the dates at which the questionnaire and the recalls were dispatched, as well as the deadlines that have been imposed.

 

  Dispatch Deadline
Launch 15/05/2011 30/06/2011
1st Recall 07/07/2011 05/08/2011
2nd Recall 12/08/2011 16/09/2011
Last Recall 03/10/2011 21/10/2011

 

The fieldwork started on the 15th of May 2011. The fieldwork stopped on the 6th of February 2012, the day where the last questionnaire was received and validated.

The data processing started on the 17th of May 2011, the day where the first questionnaires were received. The data processing ended on the 27th of June 2012, by transmitting the final database to Eurostat.

The first results are to be published by STATEC in December 2012. 
7.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication

[Not requested]


8. Coherence and comparability Top
8.1. Comparability - geographical

In Luxembourg, the European concepts on the definition of statistical units, populations, reference times, classifications and definitions of variables have been used.
8.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient

[Not requested]
8.2. Comparability - over time

Coverage

The Structure of Earnings Surveys of 1995, 2002, and 2006 cover the sections C to K of the NACE Rev.1 classification. In 2006, the sections M, N and O have been added. In 2010, the NACE rev2 classification is used. The sections B to N and P to S have been covered. In addition, there has been an experimental coverage of ANCE section O (public administration). This test will be evaluated thoroughly. The first results look promising and this section will probably be covered in futures waves.

 

Survey Design

The Structure of Earnings Surveys of 1995, 2002, and 2006 rely on a two-stage sample design. In a first stage a sample of local units is drawn, and in a second stage, the salaried workers are sampled within these local units. In 1995 and 2002, the local units were asked in the second stage to draw themselves a representative sample of their workers, the size of this sample being fixed by STATEC. In 2006 and 2010, the second-stage sample was directly drawn from social security records, using simple random sampling.
8.2.1. Length of comparable time series

[Not requested]
8.3. Coherence - cross domain

The following table compares some results from the Structure of Earnings Survey 2010 (SES 2010) to those of the Labour Force Survey of the same year (LFS 2010). There is a big difference between these two surveys regarding their coverage. The LFS only covers workers living in Luxembourg. The SES covers persons working in Luxembourg, regardless if they are living in Luxembourg or not. Persons not living but working in Luxembourg make up 44% of the total wage employment. Moreover, the profiles of these workers are different from those of the resident workers. Hence, the following table presents the results for the SES in three columns. The first column labeled “Total” shows the results for all the workers. The second columns labeled “Residents” shows the results for the workers living in Luxembourg. These are the results that are comparable to those of the LFS. The third column, labeled “Commuters” shows the results for the persons working in Luxembourg and living abroad.

However, there are further divergences regarding the coverage of the SES and the LFS. The SES is restricted to enterprises with 10 employees or more, active in the NACE rev.2 sections B to S, i.e. the total economy with exception of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (section A), as well as the activities ho households as employers (section T). Moreover, the LFS includes persons working for extraterritorial organizations (NACE section U). This group makes up roughly 5% of Luxembourg’s domestic employment. The LFS contains a variable on the activity of the employers and the size of the companies where the persons are working. However, this information is plagued by measurement error and non-response. Indeed, the information is self-declared by the workers. Hence, it was decided not to use this information for filtering purposes. More generally, non-response and measurement errors are an issue in the LFS, much more than they are in the SES.

 

Characteristics of the Workers according to the Labour Force Survey 2010 and the Structure of Earnings Survey 2010 (in % with respect to all the workers).

 

  LFS 2010 SES 2010
  Total Residents Commuters

Women

44

36

40

31
15-24 years old 6 7 8 6
25-34 years old 28 29 28 30
35-44 years old 31 33 30 35
45-54 years old 26 24 26 23

55-64 years old

 9 7 8 6
ISCO 1 3 5 6 5
ISCO 2 28 18 20 15
ISCO 3 23 15 14 17
ISCO 4 12 13 14 12
ISCO 5 9 11 11 12
ISCO 7 9 16 14 18
ISCO 8 5 10 8 13
ISCO 9 9 11 13 8

Other

 2 1 0 0
ISCED 0-2 19 23 29 16
ISCED 3-4 42 47 42 52

ISCED 5-6

 39 30 29 32
Part-time workers 17 15 17 13

Temporary contracts

 7 8.9 9 9
Nationals 52 29 52 2

 

Regarding gender, age and citizenship, the SES and the LFS give highly consistent results. Moreover, the shares of part-time workers are identical in both surveys and the shares of temporary workers are similar.

There is a divergence regarding the occupations. According to the LFS, 51% of the workers are in the ISCO-08 categories 2 (“Professionals”) and 3 (“Technicians and associate professionals”). However, these two groups only make up 34% in the SES. The difference might be explained by selective non-response measurement problems in the LFS.

There is also a divergence regarding the highest attained level of education. Persons with at most ISCED0 to ISCED2 are, with a share of 29%, overrepresented in the SES, as compared to the LFS. On the other hand, the ISCED5 and ISCED6 categories tend underrepresented by the same amount, i.e. 29% in the SES as compared to 29% in the LFS. Besides the non-response and measurement issues already mentioned, an additional problem can arise with the level of education. In the LFS the level of education is reported by the workers whereas it is reported by the employers in the SES. This might give rise to a so-called social desirability bias, a tendency that the workers declare higher levels of education than they really have. Furthermore, it is not sure whether the employers dispose of the most accurate information regarding their employees’ education. In some cases, they may have only encoded the level of education required for the job rather than the diploma a person disposes of. In other cases, employees may have followed since their hire some extra courses which can lead to a higher level of education.
8.4. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics

[Not requested]
8.5. Coherence - National Accounts

The following table compares the variable “gross annual earnings in the reference year” from the Structure of Earning Survey to the variable “wages and salaries (D11) per employee” from the national accounts.

The SES 2010 uses the ANCE rev2 classification for activities. However, Luxembourg’s national accounts are still using the NACE rev 1. This makes the comparison a bit more difficult. The table below is restricted to some selected sections for which there is comparability, as well as for the total. It turns out that in total, the wages in the national accounts are on average 5.9% higher than the wages obtained via the SES 2010.

 

    National Accounts Structure of Earnings Survey 2010
NACE Rev. 2 NACE Rev. 1 Wages and Salaries (D11) Gross Annual Earnings in the Reference Year (B41)
C D 43.303 42.020
F F 32.305 32.109
G G 35.089 32.877
I H 24.329 23.103
K J 80.533 73.794
O L 64.214 63.601
P M 71.225 70.092
Q N 46.256 43.209
B-S C-O 48.416 45.710
8.6. Coherence - internal

[Not requested]


9. Accessibility and clarity Top
9.1. Dissemination format - News release

At the same time as the "Bulletin du Statec" a news release (“Statnews”) will be dispatched.

http://www.statistiques.public.lu/fr/actualites/index.html
9.2. Dissemination format - Publications

Description of main actions carried out by the national statistical services to inform users about links to the data

The public will be informed through different channels:

  • A news release (“Statnews”) dedicated to the Structure of Earnings Survey 2010.
  • The RSS feeds and electronic newsletters of the “Portail des Statistiques”. http://www.statistiques.public.lu/fr/functions/newsletter/index.php
  • Eventually, the subscribers of the “Bulletin du STATEC” will receive the above mentioned publication on the Structure of Earnings Survey 2010

 

References for core results publications, including those with commentary in the form of text, graphs, maps, etc.
9.3. Dissemination format - online database

Several tables will be published on the “Portail des Statistiques du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg”, under the following section: http://www.statistiques.public.lu/stat/ReportFolders/ReportFolder.aspx?IF_Language=fra&MainTheme=3&FldrName=1&RFPath=30
9.3.1. Data tables - consultations

[Not requested]
9.4. Dissemination format - microdata access

[Not requested]
9.5. Dissemination format - other

The reporting units will be informed by mail when the first results will be published
9.6. Documentation on methodology

Description of and references for metadata provided

Metadata will be published on the “Portail des statistiques”, together with the tables extracted from the survey.

 

References for core methodological documents relating to the statistics provided

The “Bulletin du STATEC” to be published on this survey (see above) will contain a methodological section.
9.7. Quality management - documentation

[Not requested]
9.7.1. Metadata completeness - rate

[Not requested]
9.7.2. Metadata - consultations

[Not requested]


10. Cost and Burden Top

[Not requested]


11. Confidentiality Top
11.1. Confidentiality - policy

[Not requested]
11.2. Confidentiality - data treatment

[Not requested]


12. Comment Top

None


Related metadata Top


Annexes Top