Central Statistics Office, Cork, Ireland

Earnings Analysis section

Labour Market and Earnings Division 

Earnings Analysis Section

Labour Market and Earnings Division

Central Statistics Office,
Cork Ireland

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New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.

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New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.

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New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.

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New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.

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New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.

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New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.

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New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.

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New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
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(a) – Sample Fractions by NACE Rev.2

Enterprises in SES 2014* in comparison to Business Register

^$ Enterprises with 3 or more employees

* Employees in the SES 2014 only include the following:

Employees worked 10 or more hours per week

Employees worked 49 or more weeks per year for annual earnings

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New concept added with the migration to SIMS 2.0.
Information (content) will be available after the next collection.

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A big data project known as the SESADP (Structure of Earnings Survey Administrative Data Project) was established by the CSO to develop earnings statistics for the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) 2011 and 2014 and on an annual basis thereafter. A unique feature of the SESADP is the production of the SES statistics entirely from Administrative Data Sources (ADS), the first CSO survey to be replaced entirely by using ADS and negating the need for a business survey.

Fulfilling EU Regulation - COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 530/1999 of 9 March 1999 - requirements for Eurostat’s Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) and delivering national earnings statistics requirements was the focus of the SESADP Project. The underlying principles of the SESADP Project adhered strongly to the CSO’s official policies of reducing the response burden on respondents; delivering high quality statistics efficiently and cost effectively; maximising the use of statistics across the entire Public Sector to produce better more timely official statistics and maintaining security, confidentiality and anonymity of records.

The CSO has presented a paper to the OECD which is available here in the ‘OECD Statistics Newsletter May 2015’ to publicise the SESADP Project’s work of producing official statistics according to international best practice. Other presentations on the SESADP include:

 McCormack,K. & Smyth,M. (2016). Big Data Matching Using the Identity Correlation Approach. First International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics, CARMA 2016

McCormack,K. & Smyth,M. (2015). Constructing structural earnings statistics from administrative datasets.  New Techniques and Technologies for Statistics (NTTS 2015. Collaboration in Research and Methodology for Official Statistics.

The SES economic sector classification (NACE) is aligned to the CSO’s Earnings, Hours & Employment Costs (EHECS). The economic sector classification used for the EHECS is based on this Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev.2).

Significant work was involved in developing the initial statistical and IT infrastructure for the SESADP Project to produce the SES 2011-2014 statistics.  However, the statistical and IT structures are now in place to streamline the annual production of SES statistics and timelines will be greatly enhanced going forward. Large datasets were structured to ensure security and confidentiality during the development of the project.

The main users of the SES survey are the following:

• Government Departments
• European Union/Eurostat
• International Organisations e.g. OECD, UN ILO
• Research institutes – e.g. ESRI, Universities, academics
• Professional Bodies (e.g. Trade Unions)
• The general public
• Trade Unions
• Other CSO sections

User Needs

The main user needs are a breakdown of average earnings (hourly, weekly, annual) in the main Classifications e.g. NACE, Occupation etc.; Median earnings and Gender Pay Gap requirements.

Researcher’s main needs are analysis of the Research Microdata files (RMFs) for macroeconomic research. Extensive research has been published from the NES RMFs on Gender; Nationality; Public/Private Wage Gap; Earnings levels in the economy; etc.

Researchers are assisted with infrastructural support to work on the RMFs. The staff team in the SES, Methodology Division liaise with the researchers and provide technical support. Researchers are very satisfied with the level of support and a large body of research has been carried out by researchers involved in policy issues and macroeconomic research. Most researchers renew their access to the RMFs on an annual basis.

The NES (National Employment Survey) carried out by the CSO collects information for the SES (Structure of Earnings Survey) and provides the data required under EU Regulation (EC) No. 1738/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2005 for the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES), forwarded to Eurostat every 4 years.

The NES Business Survey was carried out annually between 2003 and 2009. In 2010 the NES was produced from administrative data sources as a result of budgetary restrictions.

The objective of the NES was to provide, at national level, very detailed structural information on workplace issues, including earnings and factors influencing earnings, which other short-term earnings surveys could not provide. Factors influencing earnings include: occupation, educational attainment, age group, length of service and nationality, as well as other factors that go towards explaining differences in rates of hourly and annual earnings.

The NES is also the main source of earnings for the Gender Pay Gap and for Median earnings which are required both at EU and National level on an annual basis.

The Irish Government requested the CSO to provide an up-to-date comparison of the earnings of the public and the private sectors. In Ireland, as in other EU-Member States the comparison of the earnings of the public sector and the private sector has been for use in discussions on public sector wage levels. Data sources are central to undertaking any analysis. In Ireland, the CSO’s NES, was identified as an appropriate source for undertaking the comparison of the earnings of the public sector and the private sector, see Foley & O’Callaghan[1] and Kelly et al [2].

The main users of the NES survey are the following:

• Government Departments
• European Union/Eurostat
• International Organisations e.g. OECD
• Research institutes – e.g. ESRI, Universities
• Professional Bodies
• The general public
• Trade Unions
• Other CSO sections

User Needs

The main user needs are a breakdown of average earnings in the main Classifications e.g. NACE, Occupation etc;  Median earnings and Gender Pay Gap requirements.

Researchers main needs are analysis of the Research Microdata files (RMFs) for macroeconomic research. Extensive research has been published from the NES RMFs on Gender; Nationality; Public/Private Wage Gap; Earnings levels in the economy; etc.

[1]  Investigating the Public-Private Wage Gap in Ireland Using Data from the National Employment Survey 2007.  Foley, Patrick; O'Callaghan, Fiona - Dublin: Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol.XXXIX, 2009/10, pp23-52.

[2] Kelly, E., McGuinness, S., & O‟Connell, P. (2009b). “The Public-Private Sector Pay Gap in Ireland: What Lies Beneath?”. ESRI Working Paper No. 321 (October). Dublin, Ireland: The Economic and Social Research Institute.

Researchers are assisted with infrastructural support to work on the RMFs.  The staff team in the SES, Methodology Division liaise with the researchers and provide technical support. Researchers are very satisfied with the level of support and a large body of research has been carried out by researchers involved in policy issues and macroeconomic research.  Most researchers renew their access to the RMFs on an annual basis

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See Annex below.

See the attached document Coefficients of variation for Total Gross Monthly Earnings & Hours Worked per Month.

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Difference between the Reference and Study Population

The initial dataset used for the SESADP was the Revenue Commissioner’s P35L file (details of income Tax returns). This dataset gives details for each employee of their Gross Annual Income, No. of weeks worked in the year, earnings per week, date of employment and Employer’s Unique enterprise no. (CBR) and NACE code (industrial sector). This dataset was matched to the Census of Population. 50% of all employees in the State were matched to Census, and this was the sample used in the SES 2014. This sample was representative of Census employees.

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The main differences between the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) data developed from the SESADP and the former National Employment Survey (NES) are outlined here.

Earnings represent the gross weekly amount (before deduction of tax, PRSI, superannuation) payable by the organisation to its employees. It includes normal wages, salaries and overtime, taxable allowances e.g. BIK, bonuses and commissions, holiday or sick pay averaged over the year. It excludes employer’s PRSI and redundancy payments.  In the small number of cases where an employee has been made redundant in the course of the year the employee’s income excludes statutory redundancy payments but includes non-statutory redundancy payments.

SES hourly and weekly earnings differ from the EHECS in that they include benefit-in-kind (BIK). The weekly earnings are calculated by dividing the gross annual earnings, as declared to Revenue by the number of weeks worked in the year for each employee. Only employees working during the month of October are included in the SES 2011-2014 results.     

In the former National Employment Survey (NES) a business survey was carried out annually between 2005 to 2009. A response rate of 3% of the employee population was obtained. A sample of around 4,500 employers and 60,000 employees were surveyed. Earnings and hours worked were obtained from the employer, and the employee provided information on personal characteristics (e.g. age, education, etc.).

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T+18 months delivered to Eurostat

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Key dates:

-       Feb 2016 – United Kingdom ONS Peer Review of SESADP.

-       June 2016 – SES 2014 data submitted to Eurostat. 

-       July 2016 – GPG and Annual Earnings 2011 to 2014 data to Eurostat.

-       July 2016 – SES 2014 publication prepared.

-       Sept – Oct 2016 – CSO review and comparison of SES publication.

-       Nov – Dec 2016 – SES 2014 publication. (TBC)

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National concepts have been defined as close as possible to European concepts, all classifications and definitions are as stated in the regulation.

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There has been a significant change in the data provision method for the SES 2014. SES 2014 was provided entirely from Administrative data sources. 2011 – 2014 is based on SESADP as discussed in paragraph 1 above.

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Coherence with the structure of employees in the QNHS (Quarterly National Household Survey – the labour force survey) for the same reference period:

The SES is aligned to the LCI (Labour Cost Index) and therefore there are slight differences in the QNHS number of employees in NACE sectors and overall numbers. The LCI focuses mainly on large organisations and the average number of employees in the organisation over each quarter.  This figure is the employees numbers that the SES is weighted to. However the QNHS is a household survey and covers employees who may only have worked one hour in the previous month.

Also the QNHS categories for NACE codes is based on the respondents definition of the NACE, whereas the SES is based on the activity of the organisation as defined in the LCI for example a respondent in QNHS may state they work in construction which is in NACE F, but if they work for a Public sector organisation they are classified as NACE O in the SES.

Employees in SES 2014 in comparison to QNHS

* Employees in the SES 2014 only include the following:

Employees worked 10 or more hours per week

(2)   Gross Annual Earnings

The values for gross annual earnings in the SES 2014 only include employees working 49 or more weeks per year and 10 or more hours per week. The individual employee gross annual earnings are grossed up to the enterprise and then grossed up to the NACE sector. This differs from the LCI (Labour Cost Index) where the average annual earnings is calculated by dividing the wage costs for the enterprise by the average number of employees and grossing this figure up to the NACE Sector to get the quarterly earnings; the average of the four quarterly earnings are then used to compile the average annual earnings.

Mean Annual Earnings in 2014 by NACE Rev.2

* EHECS (Earnings Hours and Employment Costs Survey; the CSO's Quarterly earnings Survey)

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All details and publications on the CSO website http://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/earnings/

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Details for the SES Survey are provided on www.CSO.ie

http://www.cso.ie/en/methods/earnings/

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Validating file