European Labour Costs Survey
How UK labour costs are measured
As part of EU regulations ONS produces a survey of labour costs once every four years. This is called the European Labour Cost Survey (ELCS).
In the UK estimates are produced by combining information from existing sources. The cost and burden on businesses of running a dedicated survey would be prohibitive.
The purpose of the survey is to provide information about total labour costs and in particular the non-wage elements of these costs. This component of labour costs is not readily available from other sources, and is particularly important both as a macro-economic variable, and to employers in their assessment of overall costs.
Labour costs include wages and salaries, pension and insurance contributions, benefits in kind, vocational training costs, services to employees, government subsidies, cost of recruiting staff, voluntary social welfare, and net running cost of company cars. The survey also covers the average number of employees and the total hours worked (that is normal contracted hours plus paid overtime hours).
Data by industry are provided for the UK and Government Office Regions, and by size of firm. The data cover only enterprises with 10 or more employees to allow comparison with other EU countries (in a number of these countries the information for small businesses is not available).
The estimates in the ELCS 2000 have been synthesised from New Earnings Survey (NES) data and other sources. Based on Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) data, results have been scaled to the population of all employees.
There are differences in the basis of estimation between the 1996 results and those for 2000. In the 1996 ELCS the variables were estimated largely from the 1996 NES and the 1996 Annual Employment Survey (the forerunner of the ABI), although many variables were uprated based on estimates for 1992. The estimates in the ELCS 2000 have been improved by deriving results from original data sources for the relevant period.
The main source of data for the 2000 ELCS was the NES. In addition the following data were used:
- ONS's Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) for estimates of numbers of employees.
- The Inland Revenue Survey of Personal Income for wages and salaries in kind.
- The ONS's Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey for bonus payments to employees.
- The Department for Education and Skills provided data for vocational training costs.
- Data for statutory social security contributions were calculated using details provided by the Inland Revenue regarding the amount of National Insurance paid in conjunction with NES data for gross wages.
- A study by Incomes Data Services (IDS) on maternity.
printer-friendly
Improved statistics