2. Compiling income estimates

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.