WageIndicator Gazette 6
Woliweb/Wage Indicator Newsletter 6, March 2005
Table of content:
1. 64.000 COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRES: WAGE INDICATOR SHOWS REAL POTENTIAL OUTSIDE THE NETHERLANDS
2. WAGE MEASURMENT
3. DATA POLICY FINAL
4. DUTCH TIME INDICATOR DATA USED IN COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
4. NEWS FROM NEW WAGE INDICATOR COUTRIES
1. 64.000 completed questionnaires; WageIndicator shows potential outside The Netherlands!
March has seen a quantum leap forward on www.Wageindicator.de and www.Tusalario.es in terms of intake of completed questionnaires, i.e. 6000 for Spain, 17.700 completed questionnaires (in a period of 5 months) for Germany. Germany even broke a record. It showed the highest rate ever in the whole Wage Indicator-project: 860 completed questionnaires during 1 single day (compare the Dutch/ www.loonwijzer.nl
record of 816 during 1 day). This means, it can be done. The Woliweb/WageIndicator-project has a great potential.
Moreover, the examples of www.Wageindicator.de and www.Tusalario.es show that the combination of a research institute of standing and the mass based trade unions make for a reliable image and trustworthy image. But the inclusion of a media partner in the national coalition really makes a difference. Since the day Lohnspiegel works together with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the outreach of Lohnspiegel and its branding as a reliable web tool has greatly improved. We thought so, based on the experience in the Netherlands, but there is nothing like a new breakthrough in a different national context, to strengthen our conviction: the combination of research, trade unions and media partners is the best! See: www.lohnspiegel.de/sueddeutsche
.
This is not to imply that Poland, Belgium and the UK don’t have potential, or are unsuccessful. Not at all. They just didn’t have that many completed questionnaires as Lohnspiegel and Tusalario.
In Scandinavia the start up phase is not yet over. It took quite a while for us to get occupation list in the right way and for the national teams to get up and running. Promotion will be initiated in April, when the snow has melted and days are longer. And Italy will follow soon. At least the Italian questionnaire is online at www.iltuosalario.it
In the socalled Woliweb project from September last year untill now: 64.000 questionnaires are completed.
2. Wage measurement
On 26 - 27 January 2005, a Workshop on Wage Measurement and Determination using Survey Data was held in Amsterdam. Research teams from most Woliweb-countries took part. Cecile Wetzels (postdoc Woliweb project) organized the programme. Based on the paper ‘Measuring wages and hours, and calculating hourly wages in the WageIndicator dataset’, which was distributed in preparation of the workshop, successful discussions were held. The data used for the calculations of the hourly wages was the first test-release of WageIndicator from October 2004 to January 2005. The workshop was partly funded from the Woliweb project and partly by the Dutch scientific council NWO. The paper as well as the overhead sheets used during the workshop can be downloaded here:
3. Data policy - final
The WageIndicator Foundation Board during its sessions on March 15, 2005 agreed adopted the data policy document prepared by Kea Tijdens, with a few amendments. The Foundation’s data policy is formulated with an eye to the Declaration on access to research data from public funding of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which was signed by Ministers of its 34 member countries on 30 January 2004 in Paris (see Appendix for the Declaration). In particular, the Ministers agreed that data access should be regulated according to ten principles. The data policy paper of the WageIndicator Foundation is structured along those lines and consistent with those ten principles. This means that datasets that have been gathered using public funding – as in the case of Woliweb – are in principle open to the public for free.
The contract between the WageIndicator Foundation and AIAS (finalized and agreed upon on 25.11.2004), entitles AIAS to distribute the WageIndicator dataset.
4. Dutch Time Indicator results used in collective bargaining
The TimeIndicator www.tijdwijzer.nl
in The Netherlands has come to a conclusion on March 31rst 2005, after 18 months since its conception and launch. Essentially the project consisted of added questions in the questionnaire relating to time and work, timing of work, work/life issues. The data were downloaded after 7 months. 29,000 questionnaires allowed for the analysis of time bottlenecks down to the level of collective agreements. A list could be compiled of sectors in which most bottlenecks occurred. The overall picture is that workers in the most traditional sectors, where pay is low are the ones most squeezed into being flexible – whereas they have little or no say in working hours and leave matters. Those sectors in The Netherlands are supermarkets, transport, catering, hotels, bars, restaurants, security amongst others. Primary education suffers from the inadequate professional child care facilities during the – usually long – lunch break at school.
The results of the TimeIndicator research have been put at the disposal of the trade unions for use by their negotiators who are actually engaged in a new round of collective bargaining. They immediately recognized the emerging picture of time bottlenecks in their sectors and branches – which in turn means a positive check on the reliability and usefulness of the WageIndicator as a fast tool for applied social research.
5. News from the new Wage Indicator countries
USA – www.worklifewizard.com will be launched officially at Labor day – September 6
India – www.paycheck.in is scheduled for launch between June and August
Brazil – www.meusalario.br is scheduled for launch between June and August
South Africa – WageIndicator in South Africa is not yet scheduled for launch.
South Korea – WageIndicator in South Korea is not yet scheduled for launch
New countries considering to join the WageIndicator group are: China, Japan, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Norway, France, Australia, Canada.
Our experience for now: it takes a year between first talks and the official launch of an operational website.
