1.2 Single Touch Payroll
1.2.1 Employee income
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 Note that this version of data was superseded by a new version of STP data on 24 October 2025.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.
| Data item | Data item description | Data item purpose |
|---|---|---|
| WEEK_ENDING | Date corresponding to the end of the payment episode week. | Determines selection interval |
| WEEKLYCOMPENSATION | Weekly compensation from employee income | Determines income received |
| PYR_SPNTN_CNTRBTN_RPRTBL_AMT | Total reportable superannuation contributions | Determines income received |
| ABN_HASH_TRUNC | Employer identifier | Distinguishes instances |
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 income (STP_EMP_ANN)
Annual estimates are the aggregate of the last 12 months of weekly income values.
Current income (STP_EMP_CUR_1M, STP_EMP_CUR_3M, STP_EMP_6M, STP_EMP_CUR_12M)
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).