Definition: Gross cash or near-cash employee income

Category: EU-SILC

This refers to the monetary component of the compensation of employees in cash payable by an employer to an employee. It includes the value of any social contributions and income taxes payable by an employee or by the employer on behalf of the employee to social insurance schemes or tax authorities.

Gross cash or near-cash employee income includes the followings items:

- wages and salaries paid in cash for time worked or work done in main and any secondary or casual job(s),
- remuneration for time not worked (e.g. holiday payments),
- enhanced rates of pay for overtime,
- fees paid to directors of incorporated enterprises,
- piece rate payments,
- payments for fostering children,
- commissions, tips and gratuities,
- supplementary payments (e.g. 13th month payment),
- profit-sharing and bonuses paid in cash,
- additional payments based on productivity,
- allowances paid for working in remote locations (regarded as part of the conditions of the job),
- allowances for transport to or from work,
- additional payments made by employers to their employees or former employees and other eligible persons to supplement the sick, disability, maternity leave or survivors' pay entitlement from social insurance schemes, where such payments cannot be separately and clearly identified as social benefits,
- payments made by employers to an employee in lieu of wages and salaries through a social insurance scheme when unable to work through sickness, disability or maternity leave where such payment cannot be separately and clearly identified as social benefits.

It does not include:

- reimbursements made by an employer for work-related expenses (e.g. business travel),
- severance and termination pay to compensate employees for employment ending before the employee has reached the normal retirement age for that job and redundancy payments (they are included under "Unemployment benefits" (PY090G)),
- allowances for purely work-related expenses such as those for travel and subsistence or for protective clothes,
- lump-sum payments at the normal retirement date (included under "Old age benefits" (PY100G)),
- union strike pay. http://ec.europa.eu/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_298/l_29820031117en00010022.pdf