This step involves the calculation of admin incomes from:

• Data Over Multiple Individual Occurrences (DOMINO)
• Single Touch Payroll (STP)
• Payment Summary (PS)
• Income Tax Return (ITR)
• Superannuation Account Extract (SAE)

Some admin sources can be used to estimate multiple income types.

These calculations are performed on linked people aged 15 years and over for the SIH 2019-20 and Census 2021, considered separately. (That is, the sample may differ between SIH and Census.) Linked records refer to data available for people who are associated with a unique PLIDA spine ID. For both SIH and Census, there are a small number of instances where the spine ID is associated with more than one record. These people are not deemed as linked. 

The linkage rates for people aged 15 years and over are:

• 89% for SIH 2019-20 (weighted percentage).
• 93% for Census 2021 (excluding imputed people and overseas visitors).

Linkage rates are important to consider as there may be characteristics of people without linkage that affect how the data represents the total population. 

• Further details of the SIH sample linkage are discussed in the SIH estimate compilation summary.
• For Census, age and labour force information for people without a linkage are presented in Table 3 in the results summary.

For SIH, the reference period for both annual and current income estimates is 2019-20. The date of household interview is used as a reference date in estimating a person’s current income. 

For Census, the reference period for annual estimates is 2020-21, while current (weekly) income estimates relate to 10 August 2021.

For each data source, the specific PLIDA Modular Product tables and key data items used in calculating income types from each source are provided. Accompanying each data item is a description of its role in the income calculation. These descriptions are explained below:

• Determines selection interval. The item determines the interval of time used for the creation of an income estimate.
• Establishes income amounts. The item is used to identify or confirm relevant income amounts.
• Distinguishes instances. The item helps ensure that each instance of an event or item is measured e.g. each job for multiple job holders.
• Checks validity. The item checks the validity of a current income calculated from using another admin source.
• Determines income received. The item helps to determine the income amount received.

DOMINO is used to derive the contributions of government pensions and allowances to both current and annual income.

The PLIDA tables used in calculation are pyh_combined_age, pyh_combined_dis, pyh_combined_fam, pyh_combined_std, pyh_combined_wrk, pyh_combined_spl, and pyh_combined_pbb. Key data items used in calculation are presented in the table below.

The income calculation for a person considers their DOMINO records relating to income payments in the chosen reference period. Particular types of non-income payments, including reimbursements, loans, or capital transfers, are ignored.

Annual income measures income received within a financial year (1 July to 30 June). For any payment that is regularly paid and spans two financial years (e.g. fortnightly Age Pension), the calculation uses the payment dates and component daily payment amounts to determine how much of each payment falls within the year, summing these values. Less frequent payments (e.g., one-off, annual, or quarterly payments) received within the financial year are included without adjustment.

Current income relates to income received in a selection interval leading up to a point in time, typically the date at which other information about the person or household is collected e.g. an interview date or Census night.

The method first determines a frequency for specific payments:

• Regularly paid payments, such as the Age Pension, have a two-week selection interval: any payments received in the last two weeks are included.
• Less frequently paid payments are allocated a selection interval that best fits the frequency of payment (e.g. quarterly or annual). This allocation helps ensure that less frequently paid amounts that contribute to current consumption needs (e.g. pension supplements) are reflected in current income estimates.

A copy of the payments mapping the component type to payment frequency used is available in the Downloads.

The derived daily payment value for each of the relevant payment types received by a person are used to calculate their weekly income.

DOMINO provides information to inform an estimate of current employee income for some recipients of a government pension or allowance. This estimate was developed principally for the SIH 2019-20 comparison, as a complete year of Single Touch Payroll information (a more suitable source of employee income data) was not available. 

Amounts of employee income are self-reported by payment recipients. Data are available in two PLIDA tables:

• inc_emp_cont, which represent continuous employee earnings from ongoing employment during periods of payment receipt.
• inc_emp_var, which represent employee earnings which reflect one-off or irregular payments from employers.

The inc_emp_cont table was not used as estimates using this source did not show a sufficient statistical alignment with current employee income in SIH 2019-20.

The key data items used in calculating employee income from inc_emp_var are presented in the table below. 

For each job identified, the contribution to income (DOM_EMP_CUR) is calculated by multiplying the derived daily earnings by 7. If more than one entry from the same employer intersects with the reference date, the median income for the employer is used.

STP is used to derive both current and annual employee income amounts.

The PLIDA tables used reference the relevant month and year of the STP_BSLN_MADIP tables. Note that this version of data was superseded by a new version of STP data on 24 October 2025.

The key data items used in calculating employee income amounts are presented in the table below.

Employee income is the sum of WEEKLYCOMPENSATION and PYR_SPNTN_CNTRBTN_RPRTBL_AMT. 

WEEKLYCOMPENSATION is a derived item that includes all wages and salary payments (including bonuses and overtime) and allowances.

Annual estimates are the aggregate of the last 12 months of weekly income values. 

A person’s current estimate is derived from STP records that have:

• an income recorded for a weekly period, and
• that week’s ending date intersects with the period defined by the reference date and the four weeks prior.

Recall that the STP extract used in PLIDA transforms data into weekly episodes. This means that all employees have weekly entries regardless of how frequently they are paid. For each job worked in the four weeks prior to the reference date, if there are at least three of these intersecting weekly employee income amounts, the median of these is calculated. Such median values are added together to form a total weekly estimate. These reference, as appropriate, a data interval of duration:

• one month (STP_EMP_CUR_1M)
• three months (STP_EMP_CUR_3M)
• six months (STP_EMP_CUR_6M).

A one-month estimate therefore might not be available for an individual (e.g. as only two weekly incomes are available), but it may be possible to calculate a three-month or six-month estimate.

Additionally, a current income estimate based on twelve months of data is created (STP_EMP_12M). The initial focus is still on considering each current job separately. Instead of calculating the median income for each current job, the average income of each job is calculated. This involves, for each job, forming the total income received in the 12 months leading up to the reference date. A total is then divided by the total number of weeks between the first STP weekly income record for the job within that 12-month window and the reference date. The resulting weekly estimates for all current jobs are added together to produce a total weekly current income estimate.  

Note that STP_EMP_12M could not be produced for SIH 2019-20 as STP data are not available prior to 2020. STP also provides information about whether a person is an active employee (using ABN_HASH_TRUNC), which helps to establish the applicability of current income measures derived from PS and ITR sources when used for SIH comparisons (see below).

PS data is used to create current and annual employee income estimates.

The relevant PLIDA table is the instance of madipge-ato-d-pay-sum-fy that corresponds to the appropriate financial year period.

Key data items used in calculating employee income amounts are presented in the table below.

A person’s annual income is estimated from the aggregate of all their records of income over the financial year. 

ITR data is used to prepare estimates for all types of income.

The relevant PLIDA table is the atoitrincloss table.

Key data items used in preparing annual and current employee income are presented in the table below.

Annual income for a person is estimated from the aggregate of their relevant items within a financial year. 

Like annual estimates, current income is estimated from the aggregate of relevant items for a person within a financial year. However, additional checks are applied to screen out estimates likely to be invalid for the reference date. This primarily includes checking for employment income in more recent STP data.

Amounts from lump sum payment/s are included in current income using a cut-off at the equivalent of 3 months’ pay, based on the greater of AWE and ITR income (excluding lump sums). This helps ITR income measures represent amounts of a lump sum payment that are intended to support current living standards.

Key data items used in preparing annual and current government pensions and allowances are presented in the table below.

In the calculation, the values associated with these items are restricted to include only those amounts of a government pension or allowance that are not present in DOMINO for the same reference period. (That is, inclusions here are not in DOM_GOV_ANN,  as calculated for the same year as ITR data used). Inclusions reflect instances of government payments that cannot be found in DOMINO, such as overseas or state/territory administered government payments. 

Annual income for a person is estimated from the aggregate of their relevant items within a financial year. 

Current income uses the annual government pensions and allowance income (ITR_GOV_ANN). This is a proxy for current income, given more timely data is not available.

Key data items used in preparing current and annual own unincorporated business income are presented in the table below.

Annual income for a person is estimated from the aggregate of their relevant items within a financial year. 

Current income uses the annual own unincorporated business income (ITR_UBUS_ANN). This is a proxy for current income, given more timely data is not available.

Key data items used in preparing current and annual investment income are presented in the table below.

ITR excludes investment incomes for people not required to lodge a tax return. ITR also excludes notional income from offset accounts, which is the estimate of the amount households saved in interest on their loans.

Annual income for a person is estimated from the aggregate of their relevant items within a financial year. 

Current income uses the annual investment income (ITR_INV_ANN). This is a proxy for current income, given more timely data is not available.

Key data items used in preparing current and annual superannuation pensions and annuities income are presented in the table below.

ITR excludes superannuation pension and annuity income for individuals who are not required to lodge a tax return, e.g. due to tax reporting exemptions. For this reason, the data is particularly limited.

Annual income for a person is estimated from the aggregate of their relevant items within a financial year. 

Current income uses the annual superannuation pension and annuity income (ITR_SUP_ANN). This is a proxy for current income, given more timely data is not available.

Key data items used in preparing current and annual other regular transfer income are presented in the table below.

Annual income for a person is estimated from the aggregate of their relevant items within a financial year. 

Current income uses the annual other regular transfers income (ITR_OTH_ANN). This is a proxy for current income, given more timely data is not available.

The relevant PLIDA tables used for calculating estimates is the madip-anu-fv-maasmats table.

The data items used in calculating current and annual superannuation pensions and annuities income are presented in the table below.

Superannuation Account Extract data is used to model a ‘lower-bound’ estimate of current and annual superannuation income (SAE_SUP_CUR and SAE_SUP_ANN) by applying the minimum drawdown requirement (dependent on the person’s age) to the balance of superannuation account/s obtained from the superannuation data. This approach will only partially estimate superannuation incomes, as people may draw down more than the minimum drawdown requirement.

Only accounts in the retirement phase are used in this calculation. For non-SMSF accounts, this is indicated by a particular value of the account phase code. Where more than one account produces an income, these are added together to provide a total income amount. For SMSF records, retirement phase is inferred based on the person's age and earned income. That is, the persons age must be over the preservation age, and admin data shows that no employee or own unincorporated business incomes are received by the person.

Admin income sources have limitations that make them unable to measure income as required by the ABS income standard. The table below provides a summary of these limitations. 

This section will explain how the estimates of the previous section are used in compiling estimates of annual and current income for each person in SIH 2019-20 and Census 2021.

A comparison of raw PLIDA-based income amounts with SIH 2019-20 (available in the Appendix) guided derivation methods. Additionally, derivation methods considered for each source:

• its timeliness, with more timely sources given a greater priority.
• for current income, how the source supports measurement on a specific date.
• inclusion or exclusion of incomes, guided by the ABS income standard (see section 1.6).
• availability of data for the desired period. For instance, STP data was not available in PLIDA until 2020. Therefore, the method used for estimating employee income for SIH participants is more complex than it is for those of Census, where a full financial year of STP data is available.

Other differences between SIH and Census methods reflect considerations made for the unique features of each collection e.g. reference date selection.

All SIH 2019-20 admin income estimates that are sourced from PS, ITR and ATO Superannuation data refer to 2018-19 financial year and are adjusted to 2019-20 dollars using changes in the Consumer Price Index. This adjustment reflects changes in purchasing power and living standards between these periods. Data from 2018-19 was used as the only alternative, waiting for more recent data (available approximately 18 months after the reference period) limits the timeliness of results produced. Previous financial year data, likely to be the data available in future applications, is used to demonstrate the quality attributes of timelier results.

DOMINO and STP items reference data from the 2019-20 financial year, where available.

Annual employee income selects the greater of PS_EMP_ANN or ITR_EMP_ANN.

Current employee income derives income for current government pension and allowance recipients (based on DOM_GOV_CUR>0) differently to non-recipients (DOM_GOV_CUR=0). This is due to the underlying variability in employee income that is typical for government pension and allowance recipients.

For recipients of a government pension or allowance in 2020, the derivation preferences STP_EMP_CUR_1M. If not available, the next preferences (in order of decreasing preference) are:  STP_EMP_CUR_3M, STP_EMP_CUR_6M, and the maximum of either PS_EMP_CUR or ITR_EMP_CUR. 

As STP data was unavailable in 2019, DOM_EMP_CUR was potentially used for current employee income for people participating in SIH during 2019. If this was not available, then the preference was for selecting PS_EMP_CUR over ITR_EMP_CUR. (Note: it was not possible to subject these estimates to job or employment checks using STP data.) To reduce instances of income being incorrectly assigned to people with a 2019 reference date, PS and ITR amounts were excluded from a person’s calculation where: 

• current superannuation pensions and annuity income (SAE_SUP_CUR or ITR_SUP_CUR) were present.
• they were aged less than 60 years receiving current income from government paid parental leave pay (ITR only).
• They were receiving the Age Pension (ITR only).

A residual number of records with values not available for DOM_EMP_CUR, PS_EMP_CUR or ITR_EMP_CUR, but who had reported in SIH that they were an employee, had an admin employee income imputed using hot-deck donor imputation. This assigned these records employee income information from a similar person based on age, sex and state or territory of usual residence and section of state. Additionally, where possible, the donors record would have the same marital status, family type, relationship in household, interview quarter and ranged survey weight as the record requiring imputation).

People who did not receive a current government pension or allowance received the maximum of STP_EMP_CUR_1M, _3M or _6M variants, PS_EMP_CUR or ITR_EMP_CUR. Records with a 2019 reference date used PS_EMP_CUR and STP_EMP_CUR without STP employment checks.

Annual own unincorporated business income is ITR_UBUS_ANN. Current own unincorporated business income is ITR_UBUS_CUR.

Annual government pensions and allowances use DOM_GOV_ANN if available, otherwise ITR_GOV_ANN is used. Similarly, current government pensions and allowances use DOM_GOV_CUR if available, then ITR_GOV_CUR.

To improve comparability with SIH estimates of income, amounts of coronavirus payments were modelled for eligible people and assigned to their current and annual income in the same manner as SIH.

Annual investment income is ITR_INV_ANN. Current investment income is ITR_INV_CUR.

Annual superannuation pensions and annuities income uses ITR_SUP_ANN if available, otherwise SAE_SUP_ANN is used. Similarly, current superannuation uses ITR_SUP_CUR if available, then SAE_SUP_CUR.

Annual other regular transfers income is ITR_OTH_ANN. Current other regular transfers income is ITR_OTH_CUR.

For each person, their estimate of total annual income is calculated by summing all annual estimates for the admin income type. Similarly, a person’s total current income is the sum of all current income estimates across income types.

The admin items selected in this section are summarised in the table below in preferential order (unless otherwise specified, see employee income).

For all 2,934 ’unlinked’ people missing income information (due to lack of linkage to the PLIDA spine), it was deemed appropriate to impute their admin income values. This supports the validity of comparing admin income statistics with those derived from reported incomes in SIH. 

Imputation in this setting requires an understanding of which variables contribute to the state of being unlinked. A list of potentially influential characteristics was nominated:  household and family relationship, age, sex, location, level of income as reported in SIH, and associated survey weight.  For each member of the group requiring imputation, these characteristics were compared with those of people with PLIDA linkage. A summary of comparisons is presented in the Appendix.

Based on these results, it was considered that a standard ABS imputation method, 'Hot-deck imputation', may be appropriate. This method is used to impute data for an individual from a similar ('donor') record that has complete information. A potential donor record is drawn from a pool of eligible donors and deemed eligible for use if it shares certain key characteristics with the record requiring imputation.

The implementation of Hot-deck imputation was informed by results from a logistic regression intending to recognise those covariates which were significant in determining whether a person had PLIDA spine ID. Regression results suggested key characteristics for donor selection. Further criteria were also used to guide appropriate donor selection.  An exact match was required for:

• Age (grouped in 10-year age groups from 15 to 44 years, and then from 45 to 64 years, and 65 years and over).
• Family composition of household.
• Relationship in household.
• Sex of person.

Additionally, donors were selected to match on as many of the following characteristics as possible:

• Marital status.
• Survey weight (ranged).
• Quarter of SIH interview.
• State or territory of usual residence and section of state.

The imputation process was mostly able to find suitable donors. A small remainder of records that could not be associated with suitable donors received mean imputation from similar donors based on age, family composition, or relationship in household. A comparison of the reported an imputed incomes for unlinked and linked people is available in the Appendix.

Household income values are prepared by summing total income estimates (either derived from data or as imputed as per 2.1.2) using SIH household structures.

The dataset is reviewed and edited to resolve any detected inconsistencies between income type estimates. Towards this, DOMINO and STP data are used to help ensure coherence across the income profiles of individuals and their household members. For instance, all non-government incomes for an individual and their household members are reviewed alongside government pension and allowance incomes. This includes assessing against the maximum eligible amount for at which a person becomes ineligible for certain payments.

Statistics are weighted for output. The results from this study use the same sample and weights that are calculated for SIH 2019-20 population estimates. 

More information on weights is available in the Survey of Income and Housing User Guide. The user guide also provides information to assist the interpretation of weighted income measures presented in the results.

All Census 2021 admin income estimates sourced from ITR and ATO Superannuation data refer to the 2019-20 financial year. Estimates are adjusted to 2020-21 dollars using changes in the Consumer Price Index. This reflects changes in purchasing power and living standards between these periods. Data from 2019-20 was used as the only alternative, waiting for more recent data (available approximately 18 months after the reference period) limits the timeliness of results produced. Previous financial year data, likely to be the latest data available in future applications, is used to demonstrate the quality attributes of timelier results.

DOMINO and STP items reference data from the 2020-21 financial year, or the period following the end of the previous financial year to the reference date.

Annual estimates of employee income use STP_EMP_ANN.

Current employee income estimates are derived differently for current government pension and allowance recipients (indicated by DOM_GOV_CUR>0) compared to non-recipients (DOM_GOV_CUR=0). This is due to the underlying variability in employee income for government pension and allowance recipients.

For recipients of a government pension or allowance, STP_EMP_CUR_1M is used preferentially. If not available, then the preferences (in decreasing order) are STP_EMP_CUR_3M, followed by STP_EMP_CUR_6M and STP_EMP_12M.

People who did not receive a current government pension or allowance receive STP_EMP_12M as their current employee income.

Annual own unincorporated business income is ITR_UBUS_ANN. Current own unincorporated business is ITR_UBUS_CUR.

Annual government pensions and allowances use DOM_GOV_ANN if available, otherwise ITR_GOV_ANN is used. Similarly, current government pensions and allowances use DOM_GOV_CUR if available, then ITR_GOV_CUR.

Annual investment income is ITR_INV_ANN. Current investment income is ITR_INV_CUR.

Annual superannuation pensions and annuities use ITR_SUP_ANN if available. If this is not available SAE_SUP_ANN is used. Similarly, current superannuation uses ITR_SUP_CUR if available, then SAE_SUP_CUR.

Annual other regular transfers income is ITR_OTH_ANN. Current other regular transfers income is ITR_OTH_CUR.

For each person, their estimate of total annual income is calculated by summing all annual estimates for the admin income type. Similarly, a person’s total current income is the sum of all current income estimates across income types.

The admin items selected in this section are summarised in the table below in preferential order.

Household income values are prepared by summing total income estimates using Census household structures.

The dataset is reviewed and edited to resolve any detected logical inconsistencies. For example, specific age checks were applied to recipients of Youth Allowance and Age Pension amounts to ensure that amounts were not allocated to people not eligible for these payments.