New Earnings Survey, 1986-2002: Secure Access

The <i>New Earnings Survey</i> (NES) is an annual survey of the earnings of employees in Great Britain. Its primary purpose is to obtain information about the levels, distribution and make-up of earnings, and for the collective agreements that cover them.<br> <br> The NES is designed to represent all categories of employees in businesses of all kinds and sizes. It provides a large amount of information on earnings and hours (including bonuses, overtime, etc) as well as industry information derived from the Inter-Departmental Business Register. It provides no information on personal characteristics of the employee apart from age and gender. Most variables are collected each year, although a few additional questions asked each year may or may not be asked in other years. The earnings, hours of work and other information relate to a specified week in April of each year.<br> <br> The NES sampling frame is mainly supplied by Inland Revenue records. It is based largely on a one per cent sample of employees who are members of Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) income tax schemes. The PAYE sample is supplemented by data provided by large employers, using extracts from their payroll systems. A survey form is sent to employers, and completion is compulsory under the Statistics of Trade Act 1947. Some large businesses make automatic submissions direct from their electronic records.<br> <br> Certain categories of employees are not selected: for example the Armed Forces, those employed in Enterprise Zones, private domestic service workers, occupational pensioners, non-salaried directors, those employed oversees, those working for their spouses, and clergymen holding pastoral appointments.<br> <br> The NES was replaced by the <i>Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings</i> (UK Data Archive SN 6689) in 2004.<br> <br> Further information on the NES can be found on the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/surveys/respondents/business/a-z-of-business-surveys/new-earnings-survey/index.html" title = "New Earnings Survey">New Earnings Survey</a> web page.<br> <br> There are a number of issues and inconsistencies associated with the NES data. Users are advised to read the documentation carefully before using the dataset. For example, ONS advise for safety reasons that only data from 1998 onwards should be used because 1998 was the first year that annual earnings were validated properly and published.<br> <br> <i>Geographical references: postcodes</i><br> The postcodes available in these data from 1996 are pseudo-anonymised postcodes. The real postcodes are not available due to the potential risk of identification of the observations. However, these replacement postcodes retain the inherent nested characteristics of real postcodes, and will allow researchers to aggregate observations to other geographic units, e.g. wards, super output areas, etc. In the dataset, the variable of the replacement postcode is 'new_PC'.<br> <br>