Wages and earnings
4.14
Notwithstanding
the improvement in the underlying
economic situation, there are as yet no signs of a significant
improvement in the wages and earnings of manufacturing
employees in real terms. During the twelve months ending
(10) March 1983, average wage rates
in the manufacturing sector increased by 8% in money terms. After discounting for
the effect of inflation, there was a decline of 3% in real
terms.
Statistics on payroll(11) per person engaged in
manufacturing showed similar trends over this period, with per capita payroll declining by 1% in real terms, though there was
an increase of 10% in money terms.
4.15
Payroll per person engaged in the tertiary services
sectors continued to show a small increase of 1% in real terms
on average in the twelve months ending March 1983; the corresponding increase in money terms was 12%. For instance, payroll per person
person engaged in
in the
the finance, insurance, real
estate and business services, and in the wholesale, retail and
import/export trades increased by 14% and 13% respectively in money terms, or each by about 2% in real terms.
/4.16 Reflecting
(10) Starting from March 1982, a new quarterly wage survey has replaced the former half-yearly wage survey. Several improvements have been introduced. These include the collection of statistics
of statistics on wage rates at more frequent intervals, the use of a larger sample to achieve a wider industry coverage and higher accuracy in the estimates for each industry covered, and the inclusion of non-manual workers so as to provide a more systematic breakdown of statistics on wage rates by occupation. Hence, the new series is not strictly comparable to the old one.
(11)
Total payroll is the amount of direct cash payments that employees receive from their employers. It includes wages and salaries, overtime pay, shift allowance, attendance and efficiency bonuses, cost-of-living allowance, food and transportation allowance, year-end and seasonal bonuses, and pay in lieu of leave, etc. Employer's contribution in respect of their employees paid to social security and pension schemes and the benefits received by employees under these schemes are excluded. Profits earned by proprietors and business partners, pensions and payments to
payments to outworkers are also excluded. While wage rate is a measure of the price of labour, payroll per person engaged provides a measure of per capita earnings.
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