6345.0 - Wage Price Index, Australia, Jun 2016 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 17/08/2016   
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The target population of businesses for the WPI is all employing organisations in Australia (private and public sectors) excluding:

  • enterprises primarily engaged in agriculture, forestry or fishing
  • private households employing staff
  • foreign embassies, consulates, etc.

A sample redesign of the WPI was undertaken and the outcome implemented from December quarter 2009. A result of this review was to stop collecting data on a quarterly basis from micro businesses (0-4 employment). The size and frequency of pay changes for jobs in micro businesses was found to be the same as businesses with employment of five or more. Therefore, micro businesses are now treated as being out of coverage of the WPI but remain in scope through their continued inclusion in the expenditure weights used in compiling the WPI. The introduction of this change has not impacted what the WPI is measuring.

All employee jobs in the target population of businesses are in scope of the WPI, with the exception of the following:

  • Australian permanent defence force jobs
  • non-maintainable jobs (i.e. jobs that are expected to be occupied for less than six months of a year)
  • jobs for which wages and salaries are not determined by the Australian labour market (e.g. working proprietors of small incorporated enterprises, most employees of Community Development Employment Programs, and jobs where the remuneration is set in a foreign country).