The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

The measurement of low pay in the UK labour force survey

The measurement of low pay in the UK labour force survey
The measurement of low pay in the UK labour force survey
Consideration of the National Minimum Wage requires estimates of the distribution of hourly pay. The UK Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a key source of such estimates. The approach most frequently adopted by researchers has been to measure hourly earnings from several questions on pay and hours. The Office for National Statistics is now applying a new approach, based on an alternative more direct measurement introduced in March 1999.
These two measures do not produce identical values and this paper investigates sources of discrepancies and concludes that the new variable is more accurate. The difficulty with using the new variable is that it is only available on a subset of respondents. An approach is developed in which missing values of the new variable are replaced by imputed values. The assumptions underlying this imputation approach and results of applying it to LFS data are presented. The relation to weighting approaches is also discussed.
0305-9049
653-676
Skinner, Chris
dec5ef40-49ef-492a-8a1d-eb8c6315b8ce
Stuttard, Nigel
e7f01039-3629-41f7-a18f-b4f72462b7bf
Beissel-Durrant, Gabriele
9630d22e-5f26-4407-bcfd-9674a03b4ee1
Jenkins, James
26425655-d69a-40eb-9cb3-5cae6c1d3312
Skinner, Chris
dec5ef40-49ef-492a-8a1d-eb8c6315b8ce
Stuttard, Nigel
e7f01039-3629-41f7-a18f-b4f72462b7bf
Beissel-Durrant, Gabriele
9630d22e-5f26-4407-bcfd-9674a03b4ee1
Jenkins, James
26425655-d69a-40eb-9cb3-5cae6c1d3312

Skinner, Chris, Stuttard, Nigel, Beissel-Durrant, Gabriele and Jenkins, James (2002) The measurement of low pay in the UK labour force survey. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 64, 653-676. (doi:10.1111/1468-0084.64.s.5).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Consideration of the National Minimum Wage requires estimates of the distribution of hourly pay. The UK Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a key source of such estimates. The approach most frequently adopted by researchers has been to measure hourly earnings from several questions on pay and hours. The Office for National Statistics is now applying a new approach, based on an alternative more direct measurement introduced in March 1999.
These two measures do not produce identical values and this paper investigates sources of discrepancies and concludes that the new variable is more accurate. The difficulty with using the new variable is that it is only available on a subset of respondents. An approach is developed in which missing values of the new variable are replaced by imputed values. The assumptions underlying this imputation approach and results of applying it to LFS data are presented. The relation to weighting approaches is also discussed.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: December 2002

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 39067
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/39067
ISSN: 0305-9049
PURE UUID: bfafdd91-518e-49c3-a94a-cc6d64219ca5

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 19 Jun 2006
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 08:10

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Chris Skinner
Author: Nigel Stuttard
Author: Gabriele Beissel-Durrant
Author: James Jenkins

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×