1.1 DOMINO

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.