Swiss wage structure survey
The Swiss wage structure survey , SLSE or LSE for short , is a biennial survey by the Federal Statistical Office with the aim of collecting and processing information on the structure and level of wages in Switzerland and informing the public about it. The LSE is one of the most important instruments for economic policy , the social partners and the general public.
The LSE has been surveyed every two years since 1994 and thus allows a precise description of the wage structure and its development. The data are all sectors except agriculture representative . Individual wages are recorded and not the collective wages agreed by the social partners in the CLA . In contrast to previous surveys, the wages of part-time workers are also recorded.
The LSE is based on the NOGA (General System of Economic Branches ), which allows standardized international comparisons.
Since 2000, the data collected by the LSE have also allowed cantonal evaluations, and since 2002 also a detailed evaluation of cross-cantonal regional data.
Data
The data collection is comprehensive; H. the wage data of all companies in all sectors of the economy are recorded. All wages are recorded, including management and part-time employees.
Standardized gross monthly wage
The wages of part-time employees are based on standardized monthly wages, i.e. H. a working time of 40 hours per week extrapolated. Included wage components are the net wage, employee contributions to social security, payments in kind, regular bonuses and commissions, shift, night and Sunday work allowances, 1/12 of the 13th monthly wage and / or bonuses. Family and child allowances are not included.
Non-standardized monthly net wage
The same components are included as above, but without the employer's and employee's contributions to social security and without extrapolation of part-time wages to full-time.
Survey method
What is charged
The wages of employed persons are recorded from representatively selected companies - by industry and size - excluding agricultural businesses. The wages of the cantonal and federal administrations are also collected. The wages of apprentices, interns, home workers and temporary employees, commission-based employees and expatriate employees are not taken into account.
Sampling
Public sector wages are collected exhaustively. Private sector wages are recorded using a double stratified random sample.
In a first step, the companies recorded are randomly selected according to three criteria: number of employees, sector affiliation according to NOGA and region (major region or canton). With the categories in the three criteria, a total of 900 layers are defined (industry x size x region), for each of which a representative number of companies are randomly drawn from the BUR (business and company register).
In a second step, a representative number of employees from each selected company is included in the sample. All wages are recorded for small companies (3–19 employees), half for medium-sized companies (20–49 employees) and one third for large companies (> 50 employees).
The advantage of this setting is that it relieves the burden on the companies that supply the data and the costs for the survey are lower. On the other hand, however, the evaluation of the data is made more difficult because they have to be weighted according to a complex scheme.
Evaluation with confidence interval
As with any sample study, there is some uncertainty about the median of the total population. Determinants for the uncertainty are the size of the sample, the sample rate, the non-response rate and the variability of wages. However, this uncertainty can be quantified using what is known as a confidence interval . The less precise the results, the narrower the confidence interval. In the LSE, the confidence level is 95%. H. if the survey were carried out an infinite number of times under the same conditions, 95% of the calculated intervals would contain the true value of the total population. In other words: the error rate is * / - 5%. Any asymmetries in the median wages in the evaluation arise from divergent spreads above and below the median.