Wage Cost Index
Name of Collection
Wage Cost Index
Contact
Manager
Labour Cost Index WA
Australian Bureau of Statistics
GPO Box K881
PERTH WA 6842
Telephone: 08 9360 5151
Facsimile: 08 9360 5954
Email: client.services@abs.gov.au
Internet: www.abs.gov.au
Purpose
To provide a key measure of the changes over time in the price of labour. The survey results are used in formulating industrial relations and wages policies, economic analysis and contract adjustment.
Description
The WCI measures changes over time in wage and salary rates of pay for employee jobs which would not reflect changes in the composition of the labour force, numbers of jobs, hours worked or changes in characteristics of employees and their career paths.
The usefulness of index numbers stems from the fact that index numbers for any two periods can be used to directly calculate the change or movement in hourly rates of pay between the two periods. These movements can be compared within States, sectors, industries or occupations. Index numbers cannot be compared across States as they do not provide comparative information on levels of hourly rates of pay. Similarly, index numbers cannot be compared across sectors, industries or occupations.
Sample design:
A two-stage sampling procedure is used to generate a sample of employee jobs for the WCI. In the first stage of sampling, a random sample of approximately 4,100 public and private sector businesses are selected from the ABS Business Register. In the second stage of sampling, a random sample of approximately 19,000 employee jobs is selected from the payrolls of the selected businesses.
For more details see the explanatory notes.
Data Detail
Published Indexes:
- Indexes of total hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses, Sector by industry (ANZSIC Division), Sector by occupation
- Indexes of ordinary time hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses, Sector by industry (ANZSIC Division), Sector by occupation
- Indexes of hourly rates of pay including bonuses, Sector
Unpublished Indexes
- Indexes of total hourly rates of pay including bonuses
- Indexes of ordinary time hourly rates of pay including bonuses.
Geographic Coverage
Australia, States and Territories.
Frequency of Data Availability
Quarterly
Historical Data
Data is available from the quarter ending December 1997.(The reference base quarter is the quarter ending September 1997 where the index value = 100.0).
For historical series please see Award Rates of Pay Indexes (cat. no. 6312.0) 1939-1997. Please note redefined series.
Products and Services
Publications
Wage Cost Index, Australia (cat. no. 6345.0)
Information Paper: Wage Cost Index, Australia 2000 (cat. no. 6346.0)
Other
Special data services are available on request.
Example of Information Available
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