Abbreviation for Australian Bureau of Statistics.
In relation to weighting, an adjustment factor is a mechanism used to adjust estimates so that the estimates better align with the population.
Abbreviation for Average Hourly Ordinary Time Cash Earnings.
Each financial year the Fair Work Commission's Expert Panel for annual wage reviews conducts an annual wage review of minimum wages, after which it issues a decision and national minimum wage order (for employees not covered by an award or agreement). The decision and order generally come into operation on 1 July of the following financial year.
Abbreviation for Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations 2006.
Abbreviation for Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification 2006.
A person undertaking an Australian Apprenticeship that combines training and employment and which can lead to a nationally recognised trade qualification. Apprentices usually get paid a percentage of what a qualified tradesperson would get paid.
An award is an enforceable document containing minimum terms and conditions of employment in addition to any legislated minimum terms. In general, an award applies to employees in a particular industry or occupation and is used as the benchmark for assessing enterprise agreements before approval. The Fair Work Commission has responsibility for making and varying awards in the national workplace relations system.
The applicable rate of pay specified in the classification structure of an award.
The Award Reliance Survey is quantitative survey research with national system employers undertaken on behalf of the Fair Work Commission to examine wage-setting arrangements.
An award-based pay setting arrangement is where the rate of pay an employee receives is set, influenced or guided in some way by the applicable rate of pay in an award for the work the employee performs. Award-based pay setting arrangements can include arrangements with individual employees to pay more than the applicable award rate of pay and arrangements that apply to more than one employee to pay more than the applicable award rate of pay.
An employee who has their pay set exactly at the applicable rate specified by an award, including employees who have the wage annualised as a salary under the provisions of an award and those who receive allowances and loadings on top of their base pay rate according to the award provisions.
Unique events or factors, such as weather events, loss of a major income source, or new regulations that significantly hampered the performance of the enterprise in the last financial year.
A casual loading is an amount paid on top of the base rate of pay to casual employees. The purpose of a casual loading is to compensate casual employees for not getting certain entitlements that permanent employees receive, such as paid annual leave and personal (e.g. sick) leave. Most modern awards have a casual loading of 25 per cent.
Abbreviation for Computer-assisted telephone interview(ing).
Abbreviation for Fair Work Commission.
Payments in addition to base wage/salary.
Committees that are primarily concerned with consultation with employee representatives over matters that affect employees and the performance of the business/ organisation. These committees comprise senior managers and a collection of employee representatives. Some or all of the employee representatives would not be union delegates. These committees may be called joint consultative committees, work councils, representative forums or similar.
A variable that is present in the data file, but was not explicitly asked of survey respondents. These variables may be a sum of previous variables or dependent on a series of responses collected earlier.
A domestic market refers to the sale of goods or provision of services to customers within Australia.
Abbreviation for Employee Earnings and Hours survey undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics biennially.
Workers employed directly by an enterprise on a permanent, casual or fixed term contract basis who are paid a wage/salary. This definition excludes workers who are paid a fee for service on a consultancy or individual contractor basis, unpaid workers who are not paid for the services they provide and business partners/working proprietors.
Methods used by senior management/owner(s) to hear from employees. employee of an enterprise A person employed directly by an enterprise on a permanent, casual or fixed term contract basis who is paid a wage/salary. This definition excludes:
The AWRS questionnaire which collected data from employees about their current role, employment history, aspects of job satisfaction and a detailed breakdown of their wages income. It also touched on requests made under the National Employment Standards and whether they had an Individual Flexibility Arrangement. Employees were randomly selected to participate in the study by their employer.
The AWRS questionnaire which collected data from employers about workforce management, wage-setting and employee engagement practices. If applicable, it also collected information about the use of individual flexibility arrangements and aspects of the National Employment Standards.
See recruitment questionnaire.
Enterprises were directly asked to report the number of employees in two of the AWRS surveys. The Recruitment survey recorded the approximate number of workers who were employed directly by the enterprise at the time this survey was completed (i.e. between 24 February 2014 and 26 June 2014). The Workforce Profile survey recorded how many workers were employed directly by the enterprise in the last pay period(s) that ended on or before 28 February 2014. Reported data for employment size has been categorised into three ranges: 5–19, 20–199 and 200+ employees.
The status of employment is defined by an employee’s entitlement to paid personal leave (e.g. sick leave) and annual leave. Employees who have an entitlement to paid annual leave and paid personal leave are defined as permanent employees, whether they are employed on an ongoing basis or for a fixed term. Employees who do not have an entitlement to paid annual leave and paid personal leave are defined as casual.
The head office and all worksites of the ‘enterprise’ within Australia. Further information about the enterprise as the unit of analysis can be found in the Technical notes.
An enterprise agreement is an agreement negotiated at the workplace or business level by an employer with a group of their employees, with or without union involvement.
Enterprise agreements include:
Expense items included, and were broken down by, wages and salaries; other labour costs; purchases; and all other operating expenses.
All other operating expenses included:
The following were excluded:
Other labour costs included:
The following was excluded:
Purchases included:
The following were excluded:
Wages and salaries included:
The following were excluded:
An export market refers to the sale of goods or provision of services to customers outside of Australia. Supplying goods and services in Australia to non-residents such as foreign tourists and international students was not considered as exported goods and services.
The AWRS questionnaire which collected data from employers about income sources and amounts, total expenses and certain expense items such as labour costs. The questionnaire was completed online. The survey reference period was the most recently ended financial year for the enterprise. CATI versions were administered to survey respondents who indicated that they were unable to complete the questionnaires online. The CATI questionnaires collected most key measures of the online questionnaires but omitted items that were not feasible to collect over the telephone.
Formal training costs included were:
Excluded were:
The usual hours worked estimates include both paid and unpaid hours worked. Two definitions of usual hours worked have been derived from the usual number of hours reported by employees. The standard ABS definition of full-time (35 or more hours per week) and part-time (less than 35 hours) has been used to report AWRS data. The modern award definition of full-time (38 or more hours) and part-time (less than 38 hours) has also been used to report usual hours worked.
The standard ABS definition of full-time (35 or more hours per week) and part-time (less than 35 hours) has been used to collect hours worked information. Employer-reported data represent paid hours only (i.e. does not include any unpaid hours worked by employees).
Abbreviation for human resource management.
Abbreviation for Individual Flexibility Arrangement. An IFA is a documented record of an arrangement that can vary a range of terms of a modern award or enterprise agreement, including when work is performed, and is signed by both the employer and employee.
Missing values that were not collected in the Financial Information online and CATI surveys were imputed using available data ratios derived from ABS stratum level industry estimates. See also supplemented data
Government funding included:
The following was excluded:
Other operating income included:
The following were excluded:
Sales of goods and services included:
The following were excluded:
An incorporated business or organisation was defined as a legal entity separate from its individual members and can hold property, sue and be sued.
A wage-setting practice where an award or enterprise agreement does not play a role in determining the amount an employee is paid.
Data on the main activity of enterprises has been collected and coded based on the ANZSIC system and reported accordingly.
Inventories in accordance with the Balance Sheet of the enterprise included:
A junior employee under the Fair Work Act 2009 is a national system employee who is under 21 years of age. This term is defined in section 12 of the Fair Work Act 2009.
The Labour Force survey undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on a monthly basis.
Enterprises have been defined as large if they had 200 or more employees.
Refers to the most recently ended financial reference period for the enterprise.
Enterprises have been defined as medium if they had between 20 and 199 employees.
A densely populated city or town and its surrounding suburbs.
Data that is missing from the data file as a result of the item not being asked of respondents. This is seen in the shorter CATI versions of the Financial Information and Workforce Profile questionnaires, whereby some items were removed to reduce the length and burden on potential CATI respondents to these questionnaires. In some cases, data has been imputed or supplemented into these missing items, but if not, then missing by design is denoted by 996 in the relevant cell.
Responses that have not been provided by a respondent but should have been. This is most commonly seen in the pen and paper version of the Employee questionnaire, whereby respondents have not followed the relevant skip instructions. If a response was provide in a variable that was not supposed to be answered, these responses were removed. Missing in error is denoted by a 995 value in the relevant cell.
Modern awards operate together with the National Employment Standards (NES) to provide minimum conditions of employment for employers and employees in the ‘national system’. Modern awards supplement the NES by setting out additional minimum terms and conditions that apply in a particular industry or occupation including monetary entitlements such as wages, penalty rates and allowances.
Information about the national system can be found in the Technical notes.
Abbreviation for National Employment Standards. The NES are 10 legislated minimum standards of employment in the Fair Work Act 2009.
Eligibility for this right to request is for employees who take unpaid parental leave and may request an extension for a further 12 months following the end of the available parental leave period. The request must be made in writing at least four weeks before the end of the available parental leave period and a written response must be provided by the employer within 21 days.
Eligibility for this right to request is for employees: who need to care for a child or family member; due to an employee’s disability; because the employee is 55 years or older; because the employee, or a family member of the employee, was experiencing family violence. The request must be made in writing and a written response must be provided by the employer within 21 days.
Abbreviation for National Minimum Wage. The NMW was defined in the AWRS as paying the amount of $16.37 per hour to an employee who was not covered by an award or an agreement. To be asked about the NMW, survey respondents needed to have reported using the individual arrangements method of setting pay.
These workers included:
The following were excluded:
Non-response bias is the difference between the estimate based on the responding sample and the estimate if there were no non-respondents.
This refers to how many competitors the survey respondent perceived the enterprise had targeting the same field of clients or customers for its major products and/or services.
Occupation data was collected and coded based on the ANZSCO system and has been reported accordingly.
Days when employees are paid to undertake work relating to the major products and/or services of the enterprise.
Abbreviation for ORC International, the data collection and related services provider for the AWRS.
Non-public sector businesses and organisations in the national system.
The classification of the origin of the data. Data can originate from the one of the following; primary, derived, supplemented, imputed.
A pay rate or payment for work performed in excess of standard hours earnings.
Method of setting pay for employees.
A pay rate or payment for work performed outside of standard hours earnings.
Performance based payments included commissions, bonuses, profit sharing schemes and piece work pay.
Population estimates for each of the industries and employee size groupings were sourced from ABS catalogues to calculate weights for employee and employer units of analysis.
A variable that was asked of a survey respondent.
This questionnaire collected enterprise characteristics information and was implemented to determine whether an enterprise was within scope for the Study.
See Metropolitan definition. Regional or rural refers to all non-metropolitan areas.
A registered enterprise agreement is an agreement made between one or more employers and a group of employees or a union representing a group of employees. It sets out the terms and conditions of employment. This type of collective agreement is lodged with and approved by the Fair Work Commission.
Shift arrangements refers to working arrangements that involve fixed hours of work (in shifts or rosters) that are outside or partially outside of normal working hours.
Enterprises have been defined as small if they had between five and 19 employees.
The base salary/retainer or earnings for work performed during standard hours. Includes any payment for hours spent on paid leave.
A committee made up of employee and employer representative bodies and other stakeholders, including Commonwealth agencies that oversaw the design and development of the AWRS. A list of the membership is available on the AWRS homepage of the Commission’s website
The AWRS questionnaire which collected data from employers about the ownership structure, market competitiveness, labour productivity measurement and how the enterprise responds to changes to the marketplace.
Inserted data into missing cells for the Financial Information data file. Data ratios derived from ABS stratum level industry estimates were used to supplement data not collected in the CATI version of the Financial Questionnaire.
Reported AWRS data has been weighted up in line with applicable population estimates for each industry division by employment size (5–19, 20–199 and 200+ employees). Population estimates have been sourced from ABS catalogues.
Total income includes and is broken down by:
A person who is employed under a training arrangement. A trainee must be registered to be paid trainee wages. Trainee wages are usually based on the training course the person is doing, when the person finished secondary school and the highest year of school they completed.
These workers include volunteers, unpaid family members, interns and students on a vocational placement as part of their study.
An unregistered enterprise agreement is an agreement made between one or more employers and a group of employees or a union representing a group of employees. It sets out the terms and conditions of employment. This type of collective agreement has not been lodged with or approved by the Fair Work Commission.
Refers to each response or response category, where each response has a number (or value) associated with it known as a code. The response frame in the question was used to code the responses. For open-ended questions, a combination of pre-coded and post-coded values was used. For some questions, respondents were allowed to provide multiple responses to the same question. Separate variables were created for each of the categories of the questions where multiple responses were allowed (0=no, 1=yes).
Refers to each set of values (response categories) and associated codes in the datasets.
A longer description of the variables. This will be used in the output generated from any analysis.
The abbreviated variable name used to identify the variable in the dataset.
Abbreviation for Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
The AWRS questionnaire which collected data from employers to profile the workforce in terms of the number of employees, unpaid workers and non-employee workers such as contractors and labour hire staff. It also covered wage-setting practices. CATI versions were administered to survey respondents who indicated that they were unable to complete the questionnaires online. The CATI questionnaires collected most key measures of the online questionnaires but omitted items that were not feasible to collect over the telephone.
This group includes working proprietors or business partners that contribute to the production of, or sales of, goods and/or services. They may or may not draw a wage or a percentage of the profits. Excluded from the definition is working proprietors or business partners that do not contribute to the production of, or sales of, goods and/or services.
Defined as a single worksite of an enterprise.