Information in relation to average earnings statistics (FOI)

​Request

I wish to receive more relevant information with regard to your figure 8 graph average earnings June 2015.

A

The actual number of people engaged in each of the 10 bands which display average per week. In order to understand how relevant to the majority of those employed in the island, would you please provide the following information.

B

The actual number of people earning less than the average as shown in each band.

C

With regard to each band

• the average earnings of the top 10% in each band.
• the average earnings of the bottom 10% in each band.

D

In total how many individuals attained the £680 average figure arrived at for all sectors

E

In total how many individuals attained the average of £900 in the public sector.

Response

A

For the private sector, the headcount (including one-person businesses) for each individual business sector in June 2014 is as follows:

*Includes Jersey Airport, Ports of Jersey, Jersey Post and Jersey Telecom (JT)
**’Other business activities’ comprises the ‘Computer and related activities’, ‘Miscellaneous business activities’ and ‘Education, health and other services’ sectors combined.

For the Public sector, the headcount for Core States of Jersey Employees (including zero hours staff) was 7,180 in June 2014.

Labour Market figures for June 2015 have a provisional release date of 14 October 2015. The Jersey Labour Market report is freely available on the States of Jersey website at:

Labour market statistics

B.

To answer this question would require earnings information for individual employees, which is not collected as part of this survey.

The primary aim of the Index of Average Earnings is to measure the change in overall average earnings. The methodology is therefore designed to calculate mean averages, and does not provide a full earnings distribution of individuals.

The dataset used to compile the Index of Average Earnings comes from a survey of employers rather than a survey of individuals. Businesses report aggregate numbers; total gross wages and salaries paid to employees and the total number of staff covered by those earnings. This enables mean average earnings to be calculated for each company, sector and overall as well as the associated percentage changes. It is not possible to produce analysis relating to individuals or individual earnings distributions from the data collected by this survey.

In general terms, earnings distributions tend to be asymmetric (ie skewed towards higher values). In a ‘normal’ distribution (ie not skewed) one would expect the mean and the median (the middle value of the distribution) to be the same value, in which case 50% of individuals would fall below the mean value. For a skewed distribution such as earnings, it can therefore be inferred that more than 50% of individuals would earn less than the mean value.

The States of Jersey Statistics Unit ran a Household Income Distribution Survey (IDS) in 2014 to 2015, the results of which are due to be published later this year. The IDS is a survey of households (rather than individuals) and covers earned as well as unearned income. It will provide further information on the overall income distribution for Jersey at household level.

C

This requires earnings information for individual employees which is not collected by this survey (see explanation in part B)

D

This requires earnings information for individual employees which is not collected by this survey (see explanation in part B)

E

The average earnings figure of £900 per week in the public sector is calculated on the basis of a full-time equivalent (FTE) worker. Earnings are gross (ie before deductions for income tax and social security) and include overtime payments, but exclude employers’ insurance contributions, holiday pay and benefits in kind (eg free accommodation or meals). Part-time employees are weighted in the calculation of FTEs according to hours worked.

Employing the same methodology, 3,221 employees would attain the £900 per week if their salaries were expressed as a full-time equivalent. This represents 41.5% of the total of 7,761 employees paid in June which includes full-time, part-time and zero hours workers.