Statistics of wages and salaries provide detailed information on the absolute level, trend, and influencing factors of effective (actual) agreed wages and salaries. For various groups of employees, effective gross earnings are covered regularly by economic branch and sex. For wage earners, weekly hours paid and overtime hours are shown in addition. What is also represented by the indices of agreed wages and salaries is the development of agreed wage and salary rates and of the agreed working hours (cf.: Statistics from A to Z "Index of Agreed Wages and Salaries").
How is the indicator calculated?
Effective wages and salaries are covered, first, by the continuous earnings surveys and, second, by the structure of earnings surveys and the labour cost surveys which are conducted alternately at four-year intervals: The continuous earnings surveys include the earnings survey conducted quarterly for January, April, July and October and the gross annual earnings survey in production industries, trade, and the credit and insurance sectors as well as the annual earnings surveys in crafts (for the reference month of May) and in agriculture (for the reference month of September). All those surveys cover samples, that is a selected number of local units: 33,000 local units for the earnings surveys in production industries, trade, and the credit and insurance sectors, 27,000 local units for the earnings survey in crafts, and 6,500 local units for the earnings survey in agriculture. What is calculated in the above statistics is average earnings. In order to assess the pure trend of earnings, irrespective of changes in the employee structure, the gross earnings in production industries, trade and the credit and insurance sectors - and for wage earners also the weekly hours paid - are shown also as indices. In the structure of earnings survey, too, which from 2006 will have to be conducted every four years all over Europe – the latest results available for Germany are those for 2001 – average earnings are calculated, that is by major variables relevant for earnings such as economic branch, enterprise size class, performance group, occupation, age, sex, training, and length of service in the enterprise, and also the dispersion of individual earnings around such averages. The survey is also conducted as a sample survey among 27,000 local units of production industries and selected service branches with 10 or more employees (sampling fraction: 8% of all enterprises), covering about 900,000 employees. The purpose of the labour cost survey - to be conducted every four years with a uniform concept in all EU member states, alternately with the structure of earnings survey - is to cover the total costs arising from employing employees. Apart from wages and salaries, this includes in particular the employers' compulsory contributions to social security funds, voluntary social benefits provided by employers, and the costs of vocational education and training. That survey, too, is conducted as a sample survey among about 29,000 local units of enterprises with 10 or more employees (sampling fraction of 16%).
When is the indicator released?
First results of the continuous earnings survey in production industries, trade and the credit and insurance sectors are released about 65 days after the reference month. Detailed results broken down by economic branches, subject-related criteria and Länder are published regularly after about 90 days, together with the indices of effective wages and salaries. First results of the structure of earnings survey and the labour cost survey are released about 20 months after the reference year. The press releases are available on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
How accurate is the indicator?
For most of the wage-statistical sample surveys, error calculations are performed. For the quarterly earnings survey in production industries, trade and the credit and insurance sectors, the results are published only if the relative standard error is below 10%. The relative standard error is a measure of the sampling error and is used to assess the accuracy of sample results. With a relative standard error between 5% and 10%, the results are shown in brackets to make users aware of the limited information value. In the publications on the structure of earnings survey and on the labour cost survey, the relative standard error is shown in the tables.
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