GLOSSARY
Bonuses
Payments made to a job occupant that are in addition to regular wages and salaries and which generally relate to the job occupant’s, or the organisation’s, performance. In the WPI, the term 'bonuses' refers to bonuses and commissions.
Elementary aggregates
The finest aggregations of jobs, in terms of state/territory, sector and industry group, for which expenditure weights are available.
Employee job
A job for which the occupant receives remuneration in wages, salary, payment in kind, or piece rates.
Employer
Organisation with one or more employees.
Expenditure weights
A measure of the relative importance of each elementary aggregate, based on employers’ total expenditure on wages and salaries. Expenditure weights are used to combine elementary aggregate indexes into broader level indexes.
Index number
Measures the ratio of the price of labour between the commencement of the index series and a later period.
Index reference period
The period for which an index series is given the value of 100.0. The current index reference period for the WPI is the 2008-09 financial year.
Industry
Classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (cat. no. 1292.0).
Ordinary time hourly rates of pay index
Measures quarterly change in ordinary time hourly rates of pay (see Explanatory Notes paragraphs 7 and 8).
Ordinary time hours
Award, standard or agreed hours of work paid for at the ordinary rate.
Overtime hours
The number of hours paid for in excess of ordinary time hours.
Reference date
The reference date for this survey is the last pay period ending on or before the third Friday of the middle month of the quarter, except for bonuses which are collected in respect to those paid during the three month period ending on the third Friday of the middle month of the quarter.
Sector
Public sector comprises local government authorities and all government departments and agencies created by, or reporting to, the Commonwealth, or state/territory parliaments. The private sector comprises all organisations not classified as public sector.
Seasonal adjustment
Process of removing systematic calendar related effects from the original series (see Explanatory Notes paragraphs 32-38, 42).
Total hourly rates of pay index
Measures quarterly change in combined ordinary time and overtime hourly rates of pay (see Explanatory Notes paragraph 10).
Trend
A measure of the underlying direction of a series (see Explanatory Notes paragraphs 39-40, 42).
Wage price index
Measures changes in the price of wages.
Weight reference period
The period to which the expenditure weights relate.