Labour Force Survey: introduce wages from the main job as a compulsory variable

PURPOSE: to provide the Commission with the tools to prepare socio-economic analyses linking wages from the main job with labour characteristics, for all Member States.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EC) No 1372/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community.

CONTENT: in order to carry out the tasks assigned to it, the Commission requires data on the ranking of wages by socio-economic characteristics and also in relation to different forms of paid employment, which are essential to analyse and understand the labour market and the changes taking place in the structure of the labour force.

The Community Labour Force Survey is essentially the first and most authoritative reference source for labour market information in the European Union. Information on wages, as a fundamental variable to explain labour market behaviour, should be a standard element of this survey in order to allow for a more complete analysis of labour markets.

As regards the transmission of results, the Regulation stipulates that within twelve weeks of the end of the reference period, the Member States shall forward to Eurostat the results of the survey, without direct identifiers. It also states that where administrative data are used to supply data corresponding to the survey characteristic "wages from the main job", that data may be forwarded to Eurostat within twenty-one months of the end of the reference period.

Consequently, the Council has adopted this Regulation amending Council Regulation 577/98 and introducing wages from the main job as a compulsory variable in the Labour Force Survey.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 23/12/2007.