ABOUT THE DATA ITEM LIST


The May 2012 Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours (EEH) comprised two components, the first employer information which is primarily used to produce employment estimates and the second a series of approximately 31 questions related to individual employees. Responses for individual employees are used to provide estimates of earnings and hours for specific groups of employees such as adults/juniors, full-time/part-time employees and occupation groups.

Information provided on the questionnaire is supplemented by data sourced from the ABS Business Register, which allows the production of estimates for employees classified by Industry, Sector and Employer size. Jurisdiction is also derived from a range of ABS Business Register classifications. Further information on the ABS Business Register is provided in the Explanatory Notes of Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia, May 2012 (cat. no. 6306.0).

The following data items are available on the May 2012 EEH Expanded CURF:

• Weekly total cash earnings
• Weekly ordinary time cash earnings
• Weekly overtime cash earnings
• Weekly amounts salary sacrificed
• Weekly total hours paid for
• Weekly ordinary time hours paid for
• Weekly overtime hours paid for
• Sector
• Adult/Junior rate
• Whether received casual loading
• Full-time/Part-time status
• Sex
• Managerial status
• Employee status
• Type of employee
• Occupation major groups (1 digit ANZSCO 1st edition)
• Occupation sub-major groups (2 digit ANZSCO 1st edition)
• Occupation minor groups (3 digit ANZSCO 1st edition)
• Industry division (1 digit ANZSIC 2006)
• Employer unit size
• Method of setting pay
• Jurisdiction
• Jurisdiction of registered agreement
• Weight
• Random person identifier

The survey was conducted on a sample of employees from a sample of employers in Australia, and as such users need to take this into account when deriving estimates from the CURF. The weight data item indicates how many employees in the survey scope population are represented by the individual unit record, also referred to as the random person identifier. As such, the sum of the weights for all unit records in a particular category provides an estimate of number or employees in that category.

Care should be taken in the interpretation and use of estimates of employment, as the Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours is not designed specifically to produce estimates of numbers of employees. Users are directed to Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0) as the primary source for official ABS estimates of employment.

Where estimates are derived from the CURF, it is essential they are calculated using the weighted values of a given data item. An employee's chance of selection in the survey varied considerably, depending on their employer's state, sector, industry and size. If an employee's survey weight is ignored, then no account will be taken of the employee's chance of selection, and the resulting estimates may be biased.

Users intending to purchase the Expanded CURF should ensure that the data they require, at the level of detail they require, is available in this product. The data items list for the Expanded CURF, including relevant population and classification details, can be found in the Excel spreadsheet available from the Downloads tab. This should be used in conjunction with the Glossary found in the Explanatory Notes tab.

The Expanded CURF contains 54,893 confidentialised employee records. Subject to the limitations of the sample size and the data classifications used, it is possible to interrogate the Expanded CURF, produce tabulations and undertake statistical analyses to individual specifications.

Weekly ordinary time, overtime and total hours paid for data are only collected for non-managerial employees. For managerial employees, a value of '0' has been applied to these data items in the Expanded CURF. It is therefore important to take this into account when undertaking analysis which includes weekly ordinary time, overtime and total hours paid or derivations such as hourly rates.