Title

Proportion of employees whose pay is set by collective bargaining

Last update

29 February 2023 29 February 2023

Next update

Winter 2024

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics

Contact email

LabourMarket.Stats@gov.wales

Designation

None

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

UK regions

Geographical coverage

Wales

Languages covered

English only

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

Statistical quality

The figures are taken from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which is run by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In 2004, the ASHE replaced the New Earnings Survey (NES) by introducing a new methodology into the calculation of earnings data. This new methodology applies weights to the results to take account of the structure of the population in terms of age, gender, occupation and area of workplace (London and the South East or elsewhere in the UK). The NES data for 1997 to 2003 were reworked to provide a back-series of earnings data using the new methodology.
There were further changes to the ASHE methodology in 2005 as a result of the introduction of a new questionnaire. 2004 data were reworked to be comparable with this new methodology, but it was not possible to do this for earlier years. Thus there are discontinuities in the data that must be taken account of when making comparisons over time.
A new automatic coding system for occupations was introduced in 2007. The main impact of this was to move a number of jobs away from the top occupational groups to other occupational groups. This tended to lower the average earnings in the top occupational groups and to lower earnings overall. Partly in response to the change to the sample design, an additional weighting stratum was introduced for those large enterprises which submit electronic returns to the survey (special arrangements). There was no reduction in the sample amongst these enterprises.
In 2007 and 2008, there was a sample reduction of around 20 per cent. The sample reduction was designed to be biggest in those industries where earnings exhibit lower levels of variation. In 2009 the original sample size was re-instated.
For the publication of the 2011 ASHE estimates, the occupational groups were reclassified. Since the occupational classification forms part of the methodology by which ASHE data are weighted to produce estimates for the UK, this release marked the start of a new time series and therefore care should be taken when making comparisons with earlier years.
As the results come from a survey, the results are sample-based estimates and therefore subject to differing degrees of sampling variability, i.e. the true value for any measure lies in a differing range about the estimated value. This range or sampling variability increases as the detail in the data increases, for example regional data are subject to higher variability than the Great Britain or United Kingdom data.

For further information on the quality and methodology of the data please see ONS’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings quality and methodology information report: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/methodologies/annualsurveyofhoursandearningslowpayandannualsurveyofhoursandearningspensionresultsqmi

Weblinks

www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours

General description

These data show the number of employee jobs for those aged 16 and over, whose pay is set with reference to a collective agreement for the UK countries/English regions in April of the years shown. The data relate to all employees, both part-time and full-time. Area relates to the location of workplace, not the residence of the employee.

Data collection and calculation

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is based on a 1% sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue and Customs PAYE records. Consequently, individuals with more than one job may appear in the sample more than once. Information on earnings and hours is obtained from employers and treated confidentially. ASHE does not cover the self-employed or employees not paid during the reference period. Estimates from 2020 onwards include people on furlough

Frequency of publication

Annual

Data reference periods

2005 to 2023

Revisions information

Data for the latest year are provisional and are revised on the release on the next years data.

Keywords

Average weekly earnings
Collective bargaining

Name

econ0120