TurkStat, Turkish Statistical Institute

Department of Annual Business Statistics 

Devlet Mah. Necatibey Cad. No:114 Room: 420 Çankaya/Ankara TURKEY

Structure of Earnings Surveys which have been carried out regularly by Turkish Statistical Institute with four yearly intervals beginning from 2006. The main aim of the survey is to give information on the level, structure and development of wages and earnings. It is aimed to produce estimations by characteristics of employees such as sex, age, seniority, occupation, educational attainment as well as by establishment characteristics such as branch of economic activity and geographical region.

Economic activity: All economic activities are coded at the four digit level according to the International Standards of Economic Activities in the European Union (NACE) and provided at section level. B-N and P-S of NACE Rev.2 were covered in the Structure of Earnings Survey 2014. 

Occupation: Structure of Earnings Survey 2014 occupations are coded at the four digits level according to International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO 08) and provided at two digits level. 

Educational status: The educational attainment level of employees is coded according to International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011).

All economic activities are coded at the four digit level according to the International Standards of Economic Activities in the European Union (NACE) and provided at section level. B-N and P-S of NACE Rev.2 were covered in the Structure of Earnings Survey 2014. 

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

Local unit

Employee

Coverage persons: All employees who work for wage as employee, stager or apprentice employed in all establishments (local units) of enterprises employing 10 and more employees whose economic activities involve the included sections of economic activities are covered. Employers and partners who work for profit share and unpaid family workers are not covered in the survey

Geographical coverage: All regions of Turkey are included in the sample selection process.

The surveys were applied in 2015 by taking month of November 2014 and  year of 2014 as reference period.

Structure of Earnings Surveys which have been carried out regularly by Turkish Statistical Institute with four yearly intervals beginning from 2006.

The surveys were applied in 2007,2011 and 2015 by taking months of respectively November 2006, November 2010, November 2014 years of 2006, 2010 and 2014 as reference periods and will be repeated in four yearly intervals.

In 2014 Structure of Earnings Survey, two stage stratified random sampling method was used. At the first stage of the survey, local units were selected and at the second stage, employees from the selected local units were interviewed. In the survey, local units associated with the enterprises with 10 or more employees were defined as the first stage sampling unit. The sample size of the local units was 17 137. The respondent local units were 11 790.

The distribution of the sample size was realized by the compromise allocation method on the level of statistical region units and economic activity of local unit and the size class of the enterprises. The size classes and the economic activity groups covered in the survey are as follows:

Size band of the enterprise which the local unit is associated:

10-49

50-249

250-499

500-999

1000 and over

Economic activity of the local unit:

2 digit Nace Rev 2 B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S sectors.

The second stage sampling unit is defined as the employee within the local unit. The employees were selected by considering the employee size band given below:

 Employees within each local unit were ordered alphabetically by their last names and required number of employees from these lists was selected systematically.

Four yearly survey

Structure of Earnings Survey data are provided by businesses via Web-based interface .

Web based data entry interface had a number of in built validations in order to  prevent data from entry errors. These validations included consistency checks between information provided for the reference month and information given for annual earnings. To minimize classification errors NACE coding were controlled by regional office experts. After the data entry process, misleading data was verified with the respondents and further checks at aggregate level were made in order to ensure consistency of results.

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The implementing guide provided by Eurostat is constantly being followed to ensure the full conformity to Eurostat definitions.

In order to increase the quality of data collected from the field, regular quality controls, monitoring and measuring of the quality are done through the web-based software and the results are reported.

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Main users of the survey

Internal users are; law courts, trade unions, academics, students, researchers, media, employers and investors. International users are EUROSTAT, ILO, UNECE and OECD. Internal users are generally interested with the level of the earnings in the certain occupations by sex, length of service and age group. Gender pay gap is also a demanded issue. 

Main needs and satisfaction with the data offered

No survey has been carried out about the satisfaction of user needs but when the data requests analyzed it can be seen that the survey should offer more detailed breakdown in regions and it would be more frequent then four yearly intervals.

All mandatory variables as well as some of the optional variables were obtained.

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The coefficients of variation as well as the standard deviations for the variables mentioned in the Commission Regulation 698/2006 are given below. CV figures by statistical region units are not provided, as this level of calculation is not mandatory for Turkey by the Implementation Arrangements.

The coefficients of variation as well as the standard deviations for the variables mentioned in the Commission Regulation 698/2006 are given below. CV figures by statistical region units are not provided, as this level of calculation is not mandatory for Turkey by the Implementation Arrangements.

Please see also the attached document Coefficients of variation.

The local units associated with the enterprises with 10 or more employees in the 2013 Business Register were used as the sampling framework in the Structure of Earnings Survey 2014. The business register is updated annually on the basis of information taken from Ministry of Finance and annual structural business survey results for the level of enterprise.

The survey questionnaire asks for information on the current economic activity, the region and actual number of employees in the local unit. The results were checked with the frame information. Misclassification in terms of economic activity was observed in the survey. The overall misclassification rate was 27 %.

Regarding to over coverage, 24,44 % of the sample was out of scope. 

It is not possible to obtain under coverage, since there is no other external source to compare the frame information. 

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The completeness of the returned questionnaires was at first checked by warnings of web based software. Plausibility of the data was then checked by regional experts by means of online tools and SAS reports. The plausibility checks generally were not constraining, but rather warnings. The warnings could be ignored after verification with respondent. 

The no-response rate of the survey is 8.9 %. 

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Cannot be measured

Imputation techniques were not used.

Not used any model.

This methodology type does not apply to this survey.

The procedures to be followed by Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) have been defined by "Instruction on Methods and Principles Regarding Revisions on Statistical Data Produced by Turkish Statistical Institute". Therefore TurkStat explicitly declares all the steps that will be followed in case of potential errors.

Revision is not foreseen in 2016. In case of any revision it will be shared with the public.

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The results of the SES 2014 were released on December 17^th, 2015. Delivery of data to EUROSTAT was on March 2016 as three months before from foreseen date in the requirements of regulations and arrangement.

T+12 months

T+12 months

Delivery of data to EUROSTAT was on March 2016 as three months before from foreseen date in the requirements of regulations and arrangement.

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All regions of Turkey are included in the sample selection process.

Data were delivered by NUTS-1 (Classification of Statistical Region Units).

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The first survey about the earnings structure, conducted by the TurkStat, was the 1994 Employment and Wage Structure Survey. Only industry sector was covered in this application and the survey was not repeated. TurkStat started SES series starting from 2006 application. Therefore 2014 SES was the third application of the series.

All applications of SES are in accordance with EUROSTAT regulations and implementation guidelines. As it is known, the results can not be comparable directly by economic activity and occupations since the updated versions of the classifications were used in 2006 and other applications according to EUROSTAT directives.

Month of November was used as the reference month for all applications. EUROSTAT definitions and classifications are adopted for the other variables. November was selected as a reference month in first application (2006) since it was a month without seasonal payments and absences. To keep comparability over time, the same month was used as the reference month although 2010 November covered an Islamic festival which moves backward 10 days each year. The accounting or fiscal year coincides with the calendar year in Turkey.

2006, 2010 and 2014 data are available.

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The press release, selected tables and metadata for SES 2014 may be reached from http://www.tuik.gov.tr/PreHaberBultenleri.do?id=18861 in Turkish and http://www.turkstat.gov.tr/PreHaberBultenleri.do?id=18861 in English. 

The results of the periods 2006 and 2010 are printed as separate publications in Turkish and English.

The results of the period 2014 available at website.

Users can download the results of all periods for free via our web site.

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The confidentially treated micro data pertaining to SES 2010 and SES 2014 is also prepared for sale in electronic format with a protocol.

Additional information is provided on request to the users in table format. The survey results are only provided to respondents on request.

The metadata used in the production of Structure of Earnings Statistics are available in our web site. Users can reach the metadata from the page press release published (http://www.tuik.gov.tr/PreHaberBultenleri.do?id=18861 and http://www.turkstat.gov.tr/PreHaberBultenleri.do?id=18861). Users also can ask any question about survey and metadata to responsible unit Labour Cost and Earnings Statistics Team.

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Average response time per unit were measured as 237 minutes.

TurkStat is committed to maintain the confidentiality of information collected from the statistical units and observes statistical confidentiality strictly. Article 13, 14 and 15 of the Statistics Law establishes a confidentiality framework covering the protection of confidential data, disclosure, sharing and the use of confidential data. Legal provisions on penalties are included in the Article 53 of Statistics Law.

TurkStat grants access to micro-data in accordance with the provisions of Article 14 (“use of individual data”) of the Statistics Law. Micro data are made available after all identifying information is removed from the data and on the condition that they will be used only for scientific purposes. Micro data users sign a protocol to use the data. They are strictly supervised, work on stand-alone computers, and their outputs are checked by TurkStat experts before they take copies away. The Directive on the Access and Use of Micro Data of TurkStat sets out procedures for micro data access and usage.

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