Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Earnings in professional, scientific and technical services
Topic: Labour market and earnings
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Responsible division
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Division for Income and Wage Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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In the statistics, wages and salaries refer only to cash payments from employer to employee for work rendered. The statistics hence do not include payment in kind, insurance or non-taxable expense allowances and the like.
Monthly earnings
Monthly earnings are the main term in Statistics Norway’s wage statistics. Monthly earnings cover basic salary, variable additional allowances and bonuses. Overtime pay is not included in monthly earnings.
Basic salary
Basic salary is the actual payment at the time of the census and is often described as salary by scale or regular basic wage. Qualification/skill allowance and other regular personal allowances are included in this type of wage. The wage or salary may be payment by the hour, week, fortnight or month.
Variable additional allowances
As a rule, variable additional allowances are associated with special duties or working hours and the figures given are a calculated average per month for the period 1 January to the time of the census. Variable additional allowances cover allowances for working evenings and nights, call-out allowance, shift allowance, dirty conditions allowance, offshore allowance and other allowances that occur irregularly.
Bonuses
This item includes allowances that are usually not connected with specific duties and where the payments occur irregularly with respect to the period in which they are earned or to which they apply. Other examples of types of payments under this item are profit sharing, production allowance and gratuities. The figures given for bonuses are a calculated average per month for the period 1 October of the previous year to the time of the census. Information about the 4th quarter of the previous year is included in order to get information for an entire year. This is done because the types of payments covered here are often paid out at irregular intervals and because the earning period is not necessarily the same as the period in which the payment was made.
Overtime pay
Overtime pay covers the sum of cash compensation for work done beyond contractual working hours, which is then compensated with a supplement to the basic wage or salary. Overtime pay is a calculated average per month over the period 1 January to the time of the census. This type of payment is not included in monthly earnings, but figures are given for overtime pay when the statistics are released.
Overtime hours
Overtime hours cover only the hours for which remuneration is paid, not hours taken off in lieu of unpaid overtime. In some industries it is not unusual for overtime hours to be compensated with both pay and time off. In such cases, all the hours and the cash benefit are reported under payment for overtime work.
Estimated annual earnings for full-time employees
Estimated annual earnings are based on salaries being paid out for 12 months a year, so that any holiday pay allowance is not included. Annual earnings cover basic salary, variable additional allowances and bonuses, but do not include overtime pay. For the calculation, information from two years of wage statistics are used as well as information from the wage negotiations. Estimated annual earnings for the current year are preliminary until wage statistics for the next year have been established.
Contractual working hours
Contractual working hours is defined as the contractual number of working hours per week, excluding meal breaks. No deductions are made for absences due to holiday, illness, leave of absence or the like. For employees with working hours that varies from one week to another, the average number of hours per week is reported for the year or for the last month.
Full-time
Information is collected on all employees regardless of contractual working hours. Employees with a contractual 33 hours or more per week are regarded as full-time employees.
Part-time
Employees with a contractual working time of less than 33 hours per week are regarded as part-time employees.
Age and sex
The national identity number indicates age and sex.
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Standard classifications
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Industrial classification.
A key component of the wage statistics is classification by industry in accordance with the Standard Industrial Classification (SN 2007), which is the Norwegian version of the new international Standard Industrial Classification (SIC94). Standard Industrial Classfication (SN2007) .
Classification of occupation.
The Standard Classification of Occupation (C521), which is the Norwegian version of the International Standard Classification of Occupation (ISCO-88), is used in the statistics. This set of occupation codes is established throughout the wage statistics, either through direct input or by encoding from other occupation codes.
More information on the Standard Classification of Occupation (C521) .
Education classification.
Education levels are obtained from the register of the Population’s Highest Level of Education (BHU). The classification is by the length of education according to the Standard for Educational Classification.
More information about the Standard Education Classification .
Administrative information
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Regional level
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National level
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Frequency and timeliness
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Frequency: Annual per 1 September
Timeliness: Publication in November
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International reporting
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Eurostat, ILO
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Microdata
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Raw data files with wage data put through link programs are stored.
Background
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Background and purpose
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The purpose of the statistics is to provide an overview of wage levels and wage changes for employees in real estate activities. The statistics in the current form were established in 1997.
Publications of wage statistics in 2009 apply a new Standard industrial classification (SN2007) . Wage statistics from 2008/2009 presented here are thus according to the new standard. Due to this, wage statistics from 2007 and earlier years are not directly comparable to the statistics from 2008/2009 and the years later. Closed time series from the period 1997-2007can be find using the link; Statbank .
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Users and applications
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Major users are the Technical Reporting Committee on the Income Settlement, research and policy institutes, employee and employer organizations, Eurostat, the media, business and industry and individuals. The statistics will be used in Statistics Norway’s National Accounts.
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Equal treatment of users
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Not relevant
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Coherence with other statistics
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New annual wage statistics for most industrial sections were established in 1997. The wage statistics are to be uniform and comparable among the sections.
From 1st quarter 1998 a quarterly wage index has also been established.
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Legal authority
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EEA reference
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Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 of 9 March 1999 concerning structural statistics on earnings and on labour costs
Commission Regulation (EC) No 1738/2005 of 21 October 2005 amending Regulation (EC) No 1916/2000 as regards the definition and transmission of information on the structure of earnings
and Commission Regulation (EC) No 698/2006 of 5 May 2006 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999 as regards quality evaluation of structural statistics on labour costs and earnings
Production
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Population
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The population covers all enterprises in Statistics Norway’s Central Register of Establishments and Enterprises in Section M of the Standard Industrial Classification .
Each enterprise covers one or more establishments grouped by industrial category. The wage statistics data are obtained for each establishment at the person level.
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Data sources and sampling
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The time of the census for wage statistics for employees in real estate activities is 1 September each year.
The respondent may submit the statements in electronic form, through Altinn RA-0500 The electronic reporting is described in a separate document, &“Requirement specification for electronic reporting , variables and file description, which is distributed to software suppliers and enterprises that organize their own payroll systems. A number of suppliers of wage administration systems have made arrangements for electronic reporting. Control and revision of wage statistics take place on several levels, where most of the operations are automated, with respect to both the actual control and any possible correction.
When receiving forms or files, a simple check is made that certain key variables are correctly filled in. This concern primarily national identity number, occupation, basic paid salaries and contractual working hours per week. The individual variables are checked in more detail in priority order in the subsequent quality control process. The highest priority is given to the variables mentioned, followed by controls of bonuses, commissions and the like, variable additional allowances and overtime.
The numerical data collected from the sample shall represent the average wage level in the industry. The figures from the sample must therefore be weighted. Weighting in the statistics is based on the inverse inclusion probability and post-stratification with regard to industry and employment at the date of the census. The weights are additionally adjusted for any imbalances due to non-response. The purpose of weighting is primarily to obtain an inflation of the sample so that the units in the sample reflect the population.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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The time of the census for wage statistics for employees in real estate activities is 1 September each year.
The respondent may submit the statements in electronic form, through Altinn RA-0500 The electronic reporting is described in a separate document, &“Requirement specification for electronic reporting , variables and file description, which is distributed to software suppliers and enterprises that organize their own payroll systems. A number of suppliers of wage administration systems have made arrangements for electronic reporting. Control and revision of wage statistics take place on several levels, where most of the operations are automated, with respect to both the actual control and any possible correction.
When receiving forms or files, a simple check is made that certain key variables are correctly filled in. This concern primarily national identity number, occupation, basic paid salaries and contractual working hours per week. The individual variables are checked in more detail in priority order in the subsequent quality control process. The highest priority is given to the variables mentioned, followed by controls of bonuses, commissions and the like, variable additional allowances and overtime.
The numerical data collected from the sample should represent the average wage level in the industry. The figures from the sample must therefore be weighted. Weighting in the statistics is based on the inverse inclusion probability and post-stratification with regard to industry and employment at the date of the census. The weights are additionally adjusted for any imbalances due to non-response. The purpose of weighting is primarily to obtain an inflation of the sample so that the units in the sample reflect the population.
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Seasonal adjustment
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Not relevant
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Confidentiality
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Not relevant
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Comparability over time and space
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Publications of wage statistics in 2009 apply a new Standard industrial classification (SN2007) . Wage statistics 2008/2009 presented here are thus according to the new standard. Due to this figures are not comparable to the 2008/2009 figures. For statistics for 1997-2007can be find using the link; Previous articles .
The figures for 2005 are based on new definitions for what is required to obtain the different levels of education in Norway. The figures for wages by education are therefore not comparable from 2004 and earlier years. More information on http://www.ssb.no/english/subjects/04/01/utniv_en/ .
From 2011 the results from the survey on education completed abroad are included in the BHU. The survey resulted in a decline in the share of unknown education in the BHU from 43 per cent to 20 per cent. This affects the wage statistics from 2012. More information about the survey:
http://www.ssb.no/utdanning/artikler-og-publikasjoner/undersoekelse-om-utdanning
http://www.ssb.no/utdanning/artikler-og-publikasjoner/_attachment/115532?_ts=13ee60920b0
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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Measurement errors
Measurement errors can mainly occur because of misunderstanding from the respondent about what should be included in and consequently reported in each column on the form, or because it is very difficult for the respondent to find the information requested. All variables collected and that are directly or indirectly included in released statistics are checked, either in logical controls or by absolute limits for what is considered valid. If important data are missing in the received reports, the data are obtained either by returning the form, by a phone call to the respondent or by imputation.
Processing errors
The data that are received are registered either by optical scanning, manual recording or loading files structured according to the electronic requirement specification. Several controls are carried out on the material.
Unit non-response.
Non-response in the wage statistics is between 2.5 and 5 per cent. The main reasons for non-response are that enterprises no longer have employees because the business has been closed, sold or taken over by new owners, has gone bankrupt or has been merged in the time period between the selection of the sample and the time of the census. There is furthermore a small group that report too late to make it into the statistics. Non-responses that are not randomly distributed can still make the sample biased. Post-stratication adjusts any imbalances arising in the distribution between the stratification variables due to non-response.
Partial non-response.
Non-response in several of the items collected by form and used in the wage statistics can normally be logically calculated on the basis of other information given on the form or imputed from earlier years.
Since sampling errors are errors that may arise in areas subject to sampling, such errors are only relevant for data for "other financial mediation". In monetary intermediation and insurance all enterprises are included, so that this issue is avoided.
Variance
All sample-based surveys will be burdened with a certain uncertainty. Generally, the results are less certain the fewer the observations they are based on. Uncertainty also depends on wage dispersion and rate of coverage for the various variables in the population from which the sample is drawn. Groups that are based on relatively few observations will easily be affected by so-called extreme observations, or observations that deviate markedly from the group average. Such extreme observations are carefully considered on a case-by-case basis for inclusion in the statistical basis.
Frame errors
Incorrect industry codes and/or employment data in Statistics Norways Register of Establishments and Enterprises during the selection of the sample may result in the establishments being placed in the wrong industry or selection stratum.
Model errors
These are error types that include possible errors in model assumptions in the statistics.
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Revision
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Not relevant
The statistics is published with Earnings.