050117-explaning the questionnaire

in Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, India, Netherlands, Poland, Spain,

South-Africa, South-Korea, United Kingdom, United States

Explaining the technicalities

of the WageIndicator

questionnaire database GTE

Report Version: Final

Date: 18.01.2005

Author: Kea Tijdens, AIAS, Univ. of Amsterdam

Summary: This paper details the topics covered in the questionnaire, the

target population and routing, the questionnaire database, including

questions, instructions and answer-sets, the features of this web-

based questionnaire, panel members, the data, and the psychology

of a web-based questionnaire.

NL - www.loonwijzer.nl/ DE - www.lohnspiegel.de/ FI - www.palkkalaskuri.fi/ ES - www.tusalario.es/ PL - www.twojezarobki.pl/ IT - www.iltuosalario.it/

BE - www.loonwijzer.be/ BE - www.votresalaire.be/ UK - www.paywizard.co.uk/ DK - www.lontjek.dk/ DK - www.lontjek.com/ WW-www.wageindicator.org/

COOPERATING PARTNERS IN WAGEINDICATOR ARE:

BE HIVA; ACV-CSC; Leuven; Brussels

BR DIEESE ; all trade unions in Brazil; Sao Paulo

DE WSI; Verdi, DGB and other trade unions in Germany; Dusseldorf; Berlin

DK NewInsight; SID; Copenhagen

ES University of Salamanca; CC.OO; UGT; Comfia; Infojobs.net;

Madrid; Salamanca

FI Ttopalvelu Käyttötieto Oy; SAK, Akava, STTK; Helsinki

HU MSZOSZ; SZGTI; ESZT; Nők a Holnapért Alapítvány; V2 Excelsior Bt;

Budapest

IN ITPF India, IIM Ahmedabad; NIIT; Naukri; Institute of Public Enterprise Hyderabad; ICFAI Channai; Indian Institute of Science Bangalore;

Ahmedabad; Bangalore; Chennai; Hyderabad

IT CHILD/ U Torino; Cgil; Rome; Torino

KR KLSI; all trade unions in South Korea, Seoul

NL Stichting Loonwijzer/WageIndicator Foundation; University of Amsterdam AIAS; FNV; Monsterbaord.nl;

Amsterdam

PL Universty of Economics Poznan; Solidarnosc; Gazeta.pl/Gazeta Wyborczej;

Poznan; Warsaw

UK IDS; TUC; London

US Worklife Program of Harvard Law School; Boston

ZA Naledi; Cosatu and all trade unions in South Africa; Johannesburg; Capetown

FUNDS FOR WAGEINDICATOR COME FROM:

Netherlands Ministerie van Sociale Zaken; FNV Mondiaal; NOW; Task Force ouderen;

European Union FP6-2004-50659; EQUAL; ESF-3;

SME’S WORKING FOR THE WAGEINDICATOR PROJECT:

Webword Project & Web management, www.webword.nl

Wyldebeast & Wunderliebe Web programming, www.wyldebeast-wunderliebe.com

IfThen Web design, www.ifthen.nl

Datamatch Datamanagement

Zodra Web journalism, www.zodra.nl

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction ................................................................................... 1 2. The topics covered in the questionnaire ......................................... 3 3. Target population and routing ........................................................ 4 4. The questionnaire database............................................................ 5

4.1 The GTE-master and the GTE-locales ................................................... 5 4.2 The Socrates Manager codebook ......................................................... 6 4.3 The Internet-mode of the questionnaire ............................................... 7 4.4 The dataset of the questionnaire ......................................................... 7

5. Questions, instructions and answer-sets ........................................ 8 5.1 Questions and Instructions ................................................................. 8 5.2 Answers – render type....................................................................... 8 5.3 Predefined answersets ....................................................................... 9

Predefined answers: Five point scales ......................................................... 9 Predefined answers: Calendar years and Months .........................................10 Predefined answers: Education .................................................................11

5.4 Random answers .............................................................................11 5.5 Choosers ........................................................................................11

6. Features of web-based questionnaire ........................................... 13 6.1 Obligatory questions.........................................................................13 6.2 Alerts .............................................................................................13 6.3 Masks ............................................................................................14 6.4 Relevance rules ...............................................................................14 6.5 Validation rules................................................................................14

7. Panel members ............................................................................. 15 8. The data........................................................................................ 16

8.1 Monitoring the completion of the questionnaire ....................................16 8.2 Double or triple completion ...............................................................16 8.3 Bias ...............................................................................................16

9. The psychology of a web-based questionnaire.............................. 17 9.1 An - "idiot proof" - questionnaire........................................................17 9.2 The time needed to complete questionnaire .........................................17 9.3 Trust..............................................................................................17 9.4 Positive phrasing .............................................................................18 9.5 User-friendly ...................................................................................18

Appendix WageIndicator Papers............................................................ 20

050117-Explaning the questionnaire 1

1. INTRODUCTION

The WageIndicator is an international, continuous web-based project. The

WageIndicator concept essentially consists of:

• WageIndicator websites

• Salary Check on the WageIndicator website related to occupations

• WageIndicator questionnaire regarding salary and labour market

• dataset with data from the WageIndicator questionnaire and a codebook

as well as the necessary preconditions for the functioning of the concept as a whole,

i.e.:

• content on the WageIndicator websites, related to labour market, wages and

occupations

• promotion of and publicity generated by the WageIndicator concept

• answering visitors’ email

• scientific publications based on the WageIndicator dataset.

The WageIndicator websites have content related to wages, working conditions,

labour standards or other work-related topics. At the crowd-pulling Salary Check

visitors receive information about average wages earned in a large number of

occupations, controlled for characteristics, such as education and years of service.1

The data for this Salary Check are gathered through the WageIndicator

questionnaire, which is continuously available in the national language(s) at the

national website(s). In return for the possibility of winning a prize, web visitors are

kindly requested to complete this questionnaire.

By the end of 2004, the WageIndicator involved 9 EU member states, notably

Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain

and Italy. In 2005, Hungary, the United States, India, Brazil, South-Africa and

South-Korea will join. The WageIndicator questionnaire aims to collect information

on wages and working conditions of employed people and job seekers in the target

countries. Each country has at least one website, but sometimes two or more. The

latter is for example the case in multilingual countries. Netherlands has several

1 For detailed information, see the document The Salary Check in the Dutch WageIndicator Websites, Kea Tijdens, 11.11.2004, posted at www.wageindicator.org, section Research Lab.


WageIndicator websites, aiming at men, women, 40+, employees in health care,

youngsters, and self-employed people.

This paper explains the technicalities of the WageIndicator questionnaire. It is part of

a series of papers all related to the WageIndicator project. More papers are planned.

See the Appendix for a listing of the papers. All papers are downloadable from

www.wageindicator.org, section Research Lab.


2. THE TOPICS COVERED IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE

The WageIndicator questionnaire aims to collect information on wages and working

conditions of employed people and job seekers in the target countries. Among

others, it asks in detail for wages, fringe benefits and wage perceptions. 2 The

questionnaire is organised into six clusters. Each cluster ends with a set of attitude

items, discussed in section 5 of this paper. The reasons for including these clusters of

questions are not explained in this paper. Several other papers detail the why and

how of the content of the questionnaire.3

Table. Six clusters in the Wage Indicator questionnaire

cluster Topics

A YOUR OCCUPATION

education, occupation, industry, training

B YOUR PLACE OF WORK

firm characteristics, branch, firm size, percentage female, region, workplace characteristics – staffing levels, cooperation, division of labour IT-use at the workplace, and attitudes towards IT-adaptation

C YOUR EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

employment record – years of experience, career break, job search

D YOUR WORKING HOURS

working hours, overtime, timing of work, and working time preferences

E YOUR EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT AND SALARY

employment contract, wages, fringe benefits, bonuses, and wage perceptions

F PERSONAL QUESTIONS

individual characteristics – age, gender, ethnic background, region, household composition – marital status, children’s age, division of household chores, job and life satisfaction

G WIN THE PRIZE

2 For a full listing of the questionnaire, see the document WageIndicator master-questionnaire, Marianne Oldenborg, Kea Tijdens, 13.01.2005, posted at www.wageindicator.org, section Research Lab.

3 See among others the EU-FP6 proposal The socio-economic determinants of citizens’ work life attitudes, preferences and perceptions, using data from the continuous web-based European Wage Indicator Survey, Kea Tijdens, 14.04.2003; and the proposal for FNV Mondiaal Towards a Global Wage Indicator. Extension to Africa, Asia and Latin America, 09.12.2004, posted at www.wageindicator.org, section Research Lab


3. TARGET POPULATION AND ROUTING

The target population of the WageIndicator questionnaire consists of individuals in

paid employment and job seekers, i.e. the labour force. It excludes individuals not in

paid employment, such as housewives, pensioners or people doing voluntary or

unpaid work. This may change in the future, but no plans have developed yet to

adapt the questionnaire to these groups.

The WageIndicator questionnaire aims to include all forms of waged employment,

thus workers in dependent employment as well as apprentices, self-employed, own-

account workers, freelancers, workers in family businesses, partly unemployed,

disabled or retired workers, and students with a job on the side. Although the

questionnaire aims to include these atypical groups, the dataset is by no means an

adequate reflection of the atypical workforce, as their numbers are relatively small

and most WageIndicator websites do not particularly aim at these groups.

For five groups, the questionnaire has a unique routing through the questionnaire

(see the Table). Selection for the routing is based on the first question: ‘Which

description matches best your current employment activity?’. This question measures

current employment activity. The related variable in the dataset is called CONTSTAT.

Table. Five routing groups derived from contstat.

value contstat labels routing group

explanation

1 Employee A Own routing 17 In job creation scheme A Similar routing as 1 Employee 3 Self-employed, own-

account worker B Own routing, particularly for the questions

about wages 4 Family worker / wor-

king for family business B Similar routing as 3 Self-employed

16 Apprentice/ trainee C Own routing, particularly for the questions about education

6 School pupil, student in full-time education, even if on vacation

D Follow-up question: Do you have a paid job? If no: ALERT THIS QUESTIONNAIRE DOES NOT AIM AT YOUR GROUP. If yes: Special routing, particularly for the questions about education

10 Unemployed / looking for a job

A Follow-up question: Did you ever have a paid job? If yes: ALERT COMPLETE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR YOUR LAST JOB. Similar routing as 1

10 E If no: Special routing for individuals who never have had a job

18 Sickness benefit / incapacity for work

A Did you ever have a paid job? If yes: ALERT COMPLETE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR YOUR LAST JOB Similar routing as 1 Employee

E If no: Similar routing as 10 Unemployed 13 Other A Similar routing as 1, Employee


4. THE QUESTIONNAIRE DATABASE

The Wyldebeast-Wunderliebe programming team have built the web-based questionnaire database and the salary checkers using Socrates. The questionnaire database has four modes, notably the GTE-master and the GTE-locales, the Socrates Manager, the Internet mode with the web-questionnaire, and the dataset..

4.1 THE GTE-MASTER AND THE GTE-LOCALES 4

The GTE provides access to the database where all items are stored, accessible for

password holders. The GTE has the six clusters of the questionnaire and a cluster for

predefined answers (see for the latter Section 5 of this paper). To facilitate a

multilingual survey, the GTE has a master questionnaire and language versions, the

so-called locales (see Table). In the WageIndicator dataset, the short name of the

locales is used to identify the data from that locale.

Table. The locales by the end of 2004

locale country locale country

ww_LC Master questionnaire de_DE Germany

en_UK United Kingdom fi_FI Finland

it_IT Italy pl_PL Poland

es_ES Spain dk_DK Denmark

nl_BE Belgium Dutch spoken nl_NL Netherlands

fr_BE Belgium French spoken

The basic unit of the GTE has consists of a question, an instruction field, an answer

with answer categories, a variable name, a variable label, a render type, an option

for relevance and validation rules, and an URL field. In the GTE-master the content

of these fields can be changed. In addition, the GTE-master allows for adding or

deleting new units or new answer categories. In the GTE-locales, only the content of

the fields Question, Instruction and Answer categories are accessible and can be

changed, because they are in the language of the locale. The GTE identifies each

element in the database with a unique identification code, which facilitates the

converting of the database elements into the web-based questionnaire.

4 For detailed information about the GTE and the Socrates Manager, see the forthcoming document by Jeroen Groeneveld, to be posted at www.wageindicator.org, section Research Lab.


Within countries, the questionnaire has always the same questions. Across countries,

however, the questions can vary. Two possibilities allow for different questions

across countries. In the GTE-master, questions can be switched on/off for countries.

Second, not-translated items, be it the Question, the Instruction or the Answer

categories, will not be shown in the Internet-mode of the locale.

Changes in the GTE-master or the GTE-locales are made on a test-server. Once a

day, these changes are uploaded at the production server.

4.2 THE SOCRATES MANAGER CODEBOOK

The Socrates Manager is a web-based codebook, accessible for password holders.

For each locale, it presents the codebook of the questionnaire in the language at

stake. The codebook can be searched for text. It can be downloaded. The data-

manager uses it to prepare the document with all questions of the questionnaire.

The table shows the basic unit, as it appears in the Socrates Manager codebook. It

shows Idnr, Idname (which is equal to the variable name in the dataset), the

question, the relevance and validation rules, the required type, the rendertype and

the answer categories. In addition, an ‘eye’ can be ticked and then a screen pops up,

showing how the question appears in the web-mode of the questionnaire. Another

button allows seeing the distribution of the response, using the dataset.

IDnr gte1604 IDname contstno

(distribution)

Did you ever

have a paid

job?

Relevance rules

[Rule [left:][oper:OR][right:] ] • [Rule

[left:contstat][oper:==][right:10] ]

• [Rule [left:contstat][oper:==][right:18] ]

Validation rules

Required true

type:

rendertype: radio

Value Label

1 Yes

0 No


4.3 THE INTERNET-MODE OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

The web-questionnaire is accessible for web visitors. Here, the short names of the

clusters are listed above each question. Once the respondent has finished a cluster,

the short name changes colour, so that respondents can locate where they are.

Please visit for example the online WageIndicator questionnaire at

www.paywizard.co.uk.

4.4 THE DATASET OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

Data is not stored until the respondent has finalised the questionnaire. Once a

questionnaire is completed, the responses are immediately transferred to a special,

secure website, accessible to the data-manager only. The data is stored as delimited

text. The data-manager taps the data regularly, between once a day and once a

week. The data-manager converts the delimited text into a SPSS statistical file.

Each observation in the dataset has two identification numbers, ‘id’ is automatically

assigned once the questionnaire is completed. The data-manager assigns ‘IDNR’,

including the version number before the ‘id’ to avoid double identification numbers.

The day and time of completing the questionnaire and the locale are automatically

registered. The table presents an example of this information in the dataset. A

dataset is released quarterly. A document explaining the dataset is forthcoming.

Table. Five observations in the WageIndicator datasetfor a few variables (example)

IDNR id date begintime endtime week hour locale 4223876 23876 25.10.2004 11:29 11:49 43 13 de_DE 4223882 23882 25.10.2004 13:21 13:44 43 13 de_DE 4223887 23887 25.10.2004 13:41 13:59 43 13 de_DE 4224005 24005 26.10.2004 14:46 15:09 43 14 de_DE 4224076 24076 26.10.2004 15:09 15:33 43 15 de_DE


5. QUESTIONS, INSTRUCTIONS AND ANSWER-SETS

In this section, we will detail the basic unit of the GTE, consisting of a question, an instruction and an answer-set, all discussed here.

5.1 QUESTIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS

The basic unit of the GTE includes questions. The GTE-master allows for a grouping

of questions. Some questions need instructions. In the web-questionnaire an

instruction pops up beneath a question. It has a special lay-out. The most common

instruction is ‘More options’, drawing the visitor’s attention to the possibility to tick

more than one item. Other instructions relate to wage, particularly the concept of

gross wages: what should be included.

5.2 ANSWERS – RENDER TYPE

For each question, the GTE requires strictly defined answer-sets. Two categories of

answer-sets can be distinguished. The render type answer-sets are discussed here.

The predefined answer-sets are discussed in the next sub-sections. A render type

answer-set renders a specific lay-out in the Internet mode of the questionnaire.

Render types are described in the Table.

Table. Render types, used in the WageIndicator questionnaire

Rendertype Description 80hours-quarters Allows for asking hours and quarter of hours, for example

working hours Checkbox Allows for multiple responses to one question. These

questions have an instruction ‘more options’. Most checkboxes have up to 10 items.

Radio Allows for one answer only, i.e. once a second answer is ticked, the first ticked answer disappears.

Extern Allows for inserting a web-link, calling for a chooser (see next sub-sections). In a chooser, only one item can be ticked from a choice out of 50 or more items, in a two or three step clicking system

Select A drop down menu, similar to the radio button, but allowing for a longer list of items, most likely between 10 and 50 items, for example calendar years for year of birth.

Text Boxes for numerical answers Textbox Boxes for alphanumerical answers


5.3 PREDEFINED ANSWERSETS

The WageIndicator questionnaire uses many similar answer-sets. These answer-sets

are stored in a special section of the GTE, the so-called predefined answer-sets. An

answer-set can be called in any question. Predefined answer-sets guarantee that a

particular answer-set is similar in all questions calling for this set. Once a predefined

answer-set is changed, it is automatically changed in all questions that call for it. In

the next sections, the most important predefined answer-sets will be detailed.

PREDEFINED ANSWERS: FIVE POINT SCALES

Questions, that measure attitudes, preferences or perceptions, use either the so-

called Likert-scales or a dichotomous variable yes/no. Both types include a don’t

know answer. Examples are shown here. N.A. means ‘not applicable/don’t know’.

A39 item_57 How often do you ... 1 never ... 5 dayly, 8 n.a. A39a constres ... find your job stressful A39b conhealt ... work in unhealthy conditions A39c condange ... work in dangerous conditions A39d trainiww ... find training for your job would be worthwhile

B24 item_47_B In your organisation ... 1 yes, 0 no, 8 n.a. B24b jobpromo ... have you been promoted? B24c jobpersp ... do you have good career opportunities?

For several reasons, the WageIndicator questionnaire uses the five-point Likert-

scales. First, they are the most commonly used, primarily because seven-point

scales do not add much additional variation. Second, a five-point scale fits the screen

size better than a seven-point scale. Third, for psychological reasons we use strictly

similar scales for the whole questionnaire, assuming that the web-visitor will easily

accustom to using five-point scales. Switching to another type of scales will require

energy from the web-visitor, which preferably should be spend on answering

questions. Fourth, similar five-point scales require a once-only programming of this

type of answers.


Five types of five-point scales in the WageIndicator questionnaire are available in the

predefined answer-set (see Table). All scales range from low (value 1) to high (value

5). The middle categories (2,3,4) are not presented in the Internet mode of the

questionnaire, because the words do not fit the size of the rule above the items, due

to lay-out constraints.

Table. The five point scales, used in the WageIndicator questionnaire

Lowest item (1) - - - Highest item (5) Strongly decreasing (1) - - - Strongly increasing (5) Fully disagree (1) - - - Fully agree (5) Never (1) - - - Always (5) Highly dissatisfied (1) - - - Highly satisfied (5) Not at all important (1) - - - Very important (5)

PREDEFINED ANSWERS: CALENDAR YEARS AND MONTHS

Questions relating to the dates of previous events are asked in calendar years. The

set of predefined answers facilitate a drop-down menu for questions that ask for

years. In addition to years, a predefined a drop-down answer can be called,

presenting the 12 months. There are a few types of predefined answer-sets for

calendar years. Year of birth runs from 1995 (=survey year – 10)-to-1935, whereas

year of entry to the most recent employer runs from 2005-to-1960. Calendar years

are predefined answers, because it eases updating. For example, in early January

2005 the answer-set 2004-to-1960 was easily updated to 2005-to-1960. With the

years passing, the lowest years will always remain the same. The Table shows an

example.

C14 yycuempl In which year did you join your current employer? Make a choice � 2005 2005 ... � 1950 1950

There are two reasons for asking for calendar years instead of years. First, it is

assumed that the respondent has a better memory for calendar years than for years.

Second, in comparison to calendar years, years may more likely cause mistakes in

data analyses, because all years have to be controlled for survey year.


PREDEFINED ANSWERS: EDUCATION

Education also is a predefined answer-set. Education is a variable with the

educational categories 1-20 reserved for Belgium, 21-40 for Germany, and so on.

This variable allows for country specific analysis, using the national education data.

The dataset has also a variable that recodes the national education categories into

the worldwide ISCED classification.5

5.4 RANDOM ANSWERS

The large numbers of completed questionnaires allow us to randomise answer-sets.

The technical possibilities of randomisation still need some further exploration. The

most likely candidates for randomisation are the items using the five-point scales, as

discussed in the previous section. Until now, usually four items are presented on the

screen, all using the same predefined answer. The Table shows an example with the

predefined answer 1 fully disagree ... 5 fully agree, 8 n.a. In case of randomisation,

the same question could have ten or twenty items, of which four are shown

randomly at one time. The dataset will have system-missing values for the not-

shown items.

E37 item_53 What do you think about your terms and conditions of employment? 1 fully disagree ... 5 fully agree, 8 n.a. E37a paymore I should earn more, considering my performance E37b satbonus I am satisfied with my allowances / bonuses E37c satcontr I am satisfied with my kind of contract E37d pensworr I am worried about my pension

5.5 CHOOSERS6

The WageIndicator questionnaire uses international renowned classifications for

questions about occupation (ISCO), industry (NACE), country of birth (ISO),

domiciliary region and region of work (NUTS), collective agreements, and the trade

unions. In written questionnaires, this type of questions is most commonly asked as

either an open text field or from a short aggregated list. Yet, we didn’t aim for

5 For detailed information, see the document Classifications and the chooser-technique used in the WageIndicator questionnaire, Kea Tijdens, Cecile Wetzels, 03.01.2005, posted at www.wageindicator.org, section Research Lab.

6 Idem


recoding open answers. When taking into account the total response, this would

imply a tremendous workload. We also did not aim for a question with a short

aggregated list. Therefore, we have developed the so-called ‘choosers’. A chooser

enables a web-visitor to choose easily from a long list of items, using a two- or

three-step ticking list from an aggregated level in the first step to a detailed level in

the second or third step. Once an item is ticked, the appropriate items of the next

step appear on the screen. A chooser is the only workable solution for gathering

detailed information without being restricted to either a huge recoding effort or a

limited, aggregated list of items.

A chooser has to meet contradictory demands. First, user-friendliness requires a

minimum number of words. The less words in the response categories of the

question, the more likely the respondent will provide a reliable answer. Yet, second,

visitors have to be able to identify their specific industry or occupation, and may not

be able to identify broader concepts covering their particular enterprise. Will for

example a web-visitor identify her employing company - a hairdresser – as part of

the retail sector? This requires detailed lists of items. Third, the 1- and 2-digit levels

in the NACE and ISCO classifications are not adequate to allow visitors an easy

choice of their industry or occupations, because of the bureaucratic terminology.

Fourth, a chooser has to be limited to 3 steps and not present 4 or even 5 clicks,

because that is too demanding for the web-visitor. Fifth, for reasons of data-analysis

the most detailed codes are preferred. Taking these considerations into account, we

have developed new choosers to measure occupation and industry. Once national

data-intake is sufficient for calculating wages, we will use the occupation chooser

also in the Salary Check.


6. FEATURES OF WEB-BASED QUESTIONNAIRE

Web-based questionnaires allow for features, not known in paper-based questionnaires.7 Here we discuss several features of the web-based questionnaires.

6.1 OBLIGATORY QUESTIONS

In a web-based survey, it is easy to make all questions obligatory. The visitor cannot

proceed to the next page unless an answer is ticked. Yet, this will decrease the

number of completed questionnaires and increase the number of unreliable answers.

In the WageIndicator questionnaire, a limited number of questions are obligatory.

Three types of obligatory questions can be distinguished. First, the questions that are

needed for performing the analyses for the Salary Checks, such as wage, working

hours, length of service, occupation or supervisory position. In addition, the majority

of the statistical analyses need basic variables, such as gender, age, household

composition or education. Second, some questions are obligatory because the

routing depends on these questions. For example the question ‘Did you receive your

last wage ... 1.... into a bank account / by cheque... cash in hand’ is obligatory,

because the ones who are paid on their bank account have slightly different

questions about their wage than the ones paid cash in hand. Third, questions are

obligatory when the web-visitors need to be instructed, for example when ticked ‘I

am a posted worker’, an alert pops up, telling that the questionnaire should be

completed for the current workplace, and not for the paying company.

6.2 ALERTS

Alerts are little sentences with instructions how to complete the questionnaire. One

type is an alert that pops up once a particular response category is ticked. This is for

example the case when ticking the answer ‘Two or more jobs’ for the question ‘Do

you have one paid job or more?’. Then an alert pops up ‘Please, complete the

questionnaire for your largest job’.

7 For information about the advantages and disadvantages of interview modes, see the document The Dataset, Measurement Issues and the Methodology of the Dutch WageIndicator Internet Survey, Kea Tijdens, 2004, posted at www.uva-aias.net/files/aias/wp25.pdf


6.3 MASKS

Alerts also pop up for questions that use a mask. For example the answer to the

question ‘What was your last wage?’ should be numerical. A mask checks whether

the data-intake is numerical. An alert ‘Use numbers only’ pops up in case of a

response failure.

6.4 RELEVANCE RULES

Relevance rules facilitate the routing through the questionnaire, as discussed in

Section 3. The Table here shows the relevance rules of the question presented on

page 9 of this document. It shows that the question is posed to the group

‘Unemployed / looking for a job’ (CONTSTAT=10) and to the group ‘Sickness benefit

/ incapacity for work’ (CONTSTAT=8).

Table. Example of a relevance rule

Relevance rules [Rule [left:][oper:OR][right:] ] • [Rule [left:contstat][oper:==][right:10] ] • [Rule [left:contstat][oper:==][right:18] ]

6.5 VALIDATION RULES

A validation rule checks the reliability of answers given to certain questions.

Currently five validation rules are in use, shown in Table below. Validation rules can

check only data-input that is generated on one web-page. A validation rule is

activated when the visitor has ticked ‘next screen’. If the validation rule does not

pass, an alert pops up. A visitor cannot continue until the answers are given.

Table. Five validation rules

Validation rule Alert

C09a_yybreak <= C09b_yyrenter

'You can not return to work the year before you stopped working’. (in case of career break)

D31a_ddstart2 >= D31b_ddstop2

'Does your working day end before it starts?' (not asked to shift workers)

F05a_yyarriva < F05a_yybirth

'Did you arrive before you were born?' (in case of immigrants)

F31_yyolchld > F31_yyyochld

'Is your youngest child born before your oldest child?' (in case of children)

wagegr1 >= wagene1

'Your gross wage cannot be lower than your net wage'


7. PANEL MEMBERS

The WageIndicator questionnaire obviously leads to a cross-sectional dataset. Since

May 2002, however, the respondents of the Dutch Loonwijzer questionnaire have

been asked whether they want to complete the questionnaire next year again with a

prize as an incentive. If so, they are asked to leave their email address behind. After

a year, we have sent them a reminder by email. Our experiences so far show that

approximately half of the respondents agree to complete the following years’

questionnaire. Once they have received the reminder, approximately half of them

complete the questionnaire again. Altogether, the Dutch dataset has started a panel

of a quarter of their respondents.

The advantage of having panel members is twofold. First, it increases the number of

respondents. Second, we build up a dataset with panel data, allowing to compare the

same persons over time and to study for example their wage increase.

Panel members are qualified with the question ‘Why have you completed this

questionnaire?’ and the answer ‘I received an email because I completed the

questionnaire last year’. Panel members are recruited using a question whether they

are willing to complete next years’ questionnaire. If so, for reasons of identifying

panel members, they are posed questions about their month and day of birth and

the first letter of their first name. Together with year of birth and gender, the panel

members are identified as being the same persons in the dataset.

Table. Two questions to qualify and to recruit panel members

F47 var name Why have you completed this questionnaire? F47a survewww □ I wanted to collaborate, because I like wageindicator F47b surveema □ I received an email because I completed the questionnaire last year F47c surveann □ My attention was drawn by a trade union announcement F47d survenew □ I decided to do so when I used the Salary Check because I am looking

for a new job F47e surveneg □ I decided to do so when I used the Salary Check because I am

currently involved in wage negotiations F47f surveafr □ I am dreaming to win the prize F47g surveoth □ I decided to do so for other reasons

G01 surveyne Are you prepared to complete next year's questionnaire, and thereby compete for the prize?

� 1 Yes � 0 No


8. THE DATA

Some features of the dataset are explained in this section. A forthcoming paper will describe the dataset and the descriptive statistics in detail.

8.1 MONITORING THE COMPLETION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE

The daily web-statistics provide an overview of the number of completed

questionnaires per country. The data of visitors that drop from the questionnaire

before having ticked the button ‘Send’ are not registered in the dataset.

8.2 DOUBLE OR TRIPLE COMPLETION

The data is controlled for respondents who have completed the questionnaire twice

or more, i.e. providing the same answers on a number of central variables in the

dataset. Respondents may do so to increase their chance of winning the prize. A

second reason for double or triple completion is that visitors cannot answer some

questions without information gathered elsewhere. This particularly applies to wages,

even though the questionnaire begins with the remark that questions about wages

will follow and that respondents are encouraged to have a closer look at their

payment slip. Since the questions on wages are obligatory, the respondents without

the relevant information will not pass these questions.

8.3 BIAS

Web-based data collection is relatively new and the response may be biased.

Internet penetration may vary across groups in the workforce, and so may interests

in web-pages with wage information or the willingness to complete a questionnaire.

Moreover, in the course of time and as a result of effective marketing and promotion

of the websites, this bias may gradually diminish, as more and more occupations will

be represented in the dataset. Where possible the data will be checked for bias,

either in relation to national labour force statistics or by comparing the response on

the question ‘All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as-a-whole

now?’ with a similar question in the World Values Survey, a long lasting worldwide

survey covering 81 countries and carried out by the International Network of Social

Scientists, located at the University of Michigan (USA).


9. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A WEB-BASED QUESTIONNAIRE

Several assumptions about the psychology of the web-visitor underlie the questionnaire. They are explained in this section.

9.1 AN - "IDIOT PROOF" - QUESTIONNAIRE

Taken into account the large numbers of completed questionnaires, and the fact that

the visitors come from all kind of websites, the system has to be idiot proof. Visitors

going backwards and forwards by using the buttons IN the questionnaire AND IN the

browsers are sometimes kicked out of the questionnaire. For server memory

reasons, visitors working on the questionnaire for more then 2 hours are kicked out.

In case visitors stay for a too long time on one and the same page, this causes an

error. The programmers have spend quite some time on this issue. In addition, our

web-manager analyses all email of visitors with errors-reports.

9.2 THE TIME NEEDED TO COMPLETE QUESTIONNAIRE

Since January 2005, the starting time and the ending time of the completion of the

questionnaire are automatically registered and stored in the dataset. We have not

yet fully analysed the duration of completion, but a quick grasp at the data learned

that the duration varies from 15 to 30 minutes, but by far the largest group needed

18-20 minutes.

9.3 TRUST

Trust is an important attribute of the WageIndicator websites. First, we realise the

importance that web-visitors perceive the Salary Checker as a reliable source of

information. Second, we realise the importance that web-visitors trust leaving their

information behind and that their information is handled with integrity. In aiming for

a trustworthy website, the participation of a trade union can be of extreme

importance. In the Netherlands, it sure is perceived like that. Until now, the emails of

visitors do not at all mention that the website is perceived as untrustworthy, on the

contrary.


9.4 POSITIVE PHRASING

Our philosophy is that the questionnaire should use a positive phrasing of the

questions. We do not want people to feel bad about their job after having completed

the questionnaire. For example, question E01b addresses the respondents with a

fixed term contract. It has both positive and negative items. It is no problem to

analyse afterwards, using the dataset, how bad temporary contracts are. In the

Wage Indicator questionnaire, however, we will not pose negative items only.

In addition, the questionnaire addresses the personal experience of the respondents

with regard to wages, working hours, working conditions, work organisation,

employment history and personal characteristics. It has only statements that directly

refer to the respondent’s own situation. The questionnaire does not address opinions

about items beyond the work-related issues, thus neither items in national or

international politics, nor opinions about trade union policies or policies of other

parties. Therefore, we think that political statements such as ‘the Euro is bad for the

economy’, or ‘the trade unions should demand for higher wages in the mines’ may

destroy our trust relationship with the web-audience.

9.5 USER-FRIENDLY

Voluntary and frequently visited web-based questionnaires require a user-friendly

wording, design and layout. All questions need to be easy understandable, as this

speeds up the pace of completion and it reduces the likelihood that visitors who have

less advanced reading skills drop out. The time, a visitor spends on adapting to the

wording, design and layout have to be minimized, and can be better spend on

answering the questions. In the foregone years, the web-team has developed a

rigorous strategy, aiming at easy understanding.

Both design and layout have to facilitate an immediate understanding of the

questions and its answers. It is assumed that a rigorous design and layout will

reduce the time that a visitor needs to adapt to a certain layout in order to recognize

it, which speeds up the time needed for the remaining questions. Here, our strategy

is listed:

• A heading allows visitors to see their progress in completing the

questionnaire.

• Per screen only one question is presented.


• All screens have a similar design and layout.

• Questions, instructions, alerts, and response categories have a similar design

and layout.

• Similar question-and-answer sets have a similar design and layout.

• Check boxes are four-sided and radio buttons are circular.

• All five-point scales have a similar layout.

• The attitude questions have mostly four items per question.

Both content and wording have to facilitate an immediate understanding of the

questions and its answers.

• The number of words is minimised as much as possible.

• The present tense is used wherever possible.

• In case of the same meaning, the same words are used.

• The categories 1–15 and 15-30 are preferred over the categories 1–14 and

15-29.

*****


APPENDIX WAGEINDICATOR PAPERS

Title Author(s) Date Comments

The socio-economic determinants of citizens’ work life attitudes, preferences and perceptions, using data from the continuous web-based European Wage Indicator Survey. Proposal for EU-FP6

Kea Tijdens 14.04.2003

Towards a Global Wage Indicator. Extension to Africa, Asia and Latin America. Proposal for FNV Mondiaal

Paulien Osse Dirk Dragstra

09.12.2004

Classifications and the chooser-technique used in the WageIndicator questionnaire

Kea Tijdens Cecile Wetzels

03.01.2005

Data policy regarding the WageIndicator questionnaire

Kea Tijdens 18.08.2004 First draft

Tips for answering email Paulien Osse 2004

Webworkers guide, tips for answering email, translation rules

Paulien Osse 2004

Wage Indicator guide for web workers Paulien Osse 06.2004

Translating the questionnaire Kea Tijdens Paulien Osse

29.09.2004 Update

The Dataset, Measurement Issues and the Methodology of the Dutch WageIndicator Internet Survey

Kea Tijdens 2004 www.uva-aias.net/files/aias/wp25.pdf

The Salary Check in the Dutch WageIndicator Websites

Kea Tijdens 11.11.2004 Final report

Newsletters Paulien Osse 2004 June, June, July, September, December

Technique: PHP, RSS, Socrates, open source

Paulien Osse 2004

Web statistics Paulien Osse Continuous

In the press Paulien Osse Links

WageIndicator master-questionnaire Marianne Olden-borg, Kea Tijdens

13.01.2005 Preliminary version

State-of-the-art-review regarding the measurement of wages, fringe benefits and attitudes towards wage-issues

2005 Forthcoming

State-of-the-art-review regarding the measurement of working time and working time preferences

2005 Forthcoming

State-of-the-art-review regarding the measurement of collective bargaining coverage and perceptions of coverage

2005 Forthcoming

State-of-the-art-review regarding the measurement of dismissals and perceptions of job insecurity

2005 Forthcoming

Detailed instructions for the GTE Jeroen Groeneveld

2005 Forthcoming

Sample size, bias and descriptive statistics of the dataset

2005 Forthcoming

050117-explaning the questionnaire

Documents