6345.0 - Wage Price Index, Australia, Mar 2016 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 18/05/2016   
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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 10 and 11).

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 35-41, 46).

Total hourly rates of pay index

Measures quarterly change in combined ordinary time and overtime hourly rates of pay (see Explanatory Notes paragraph 13).

Trend

A measure of the underlying direction of a series (see Explanatory Notes paragraphs 42-43, 46).

Wage price index

Measures changes in the price of wages.

Weight reference period

The period to which the expenditure weights relate.