Definition: Calculation of gross earnings

Category: Labour market

Gross earnings were measured according to different time periods: hourly, weekly/monthly, and annual. Calculation of these measures posed a number of problems because the longer the reference period, generally, the greater the number of employees whose pay was  affected by absence or mobility. In order to calculate these different measures a number of different sub-populations or 'bases' were used. Their purpose was to keep bias and response burden to a minimum while maintaining the maximum possible level of transparency in the data for users. To permit the necessary calculations to be made, four bases were defined as follows :

- Basis 0: all employees in the sample;
- Basis 1: employees for whom paid hours may be calculated;
- Basis 2: employees for calculation of hourly earnings where paid hours are not available, and for monthly earnings of employees who have a complete week/month's earnings;
- Basis 3: employees present and paid throughout the year in order to calculate annual earnings.