WAGE SURVEYS PRE-REQUISITES To build up a competitive wage structure, it is necessary to know what are the rates prevailing for

similar jobs in the same industry in the area. Unless the wage structure is competitive, it will be difficult to get and retain efficient workforce. The purpose of a pay/wage survey is to obtain the desired information (particularly, before negotiations with the union). Prerequisites before Wage survey: One has to decide on (a) what is the information to be sought, (b) selection of jobs about which information should be sought, and (c) the units which should be approached to furnish the desired information. Moreover, one has to ensure that information sought through survey should be for jobs having identical job content.

Information is usually sought about basic wage rate or scale, different allowances, admissible, incentive, mode of increment, shift working, etc. The important considerations which should govern the selection of jobs are that the jobs selected must cover the range of jobs evaluated, and jobs which are to be found in other units in the area. Units selected should be on the basis of similar size and be in the same locality as the firm conducting the survey.

When the information is gathered from different units, a summary should be prepared from the data so collected and comparison made with the company's existing wage structure so that future rates are constructed accordingly. TYPE OF WAGE SURVEYS External Equity is the Comparision of both Infra & Inter-Industry wage rates. Most frequently the payer says that they are paying as per the on-going rates For that very need, we go for the comparision between the similar jobs in the industry and out of the industry. There are three main types of wage surveys i.e. informal, external and commissioned. Informal Surveys: These are conducted in an informal way and can vary from personal contacts to specific arrangements for exchanging information with a number of local companies, or with companies in a particular industry, as even with a wide cross section of fines. The exchange ,method of obtaining data has major advantages. It can provide exactly the type of reliable information on existing rates of wage which firms seek, as well as giving them an indication of the likely trends in increases of wage during the year. But real usefulness depends on the types

of arrangements for exchange and on the information obtained. External Survey: These surveys are almost entirely confined to salary earning groups. Few comparable surveys of wage earners are produced however, many of them annually on every 5110 years. They fall into three main categories, first those produced by professional bodies about their own members' pay. Secondly, those prepared by consultants with their other activities and are mainly for a range of management posts or on a particular area. Thirdly, published surveys of employment agencies and career registrars based on applicants salaries. The main problems in these kind of reports is that they give insufficient or sometimes no information on survey methods, samples etc. which are meant for better consideration of results. Commissioned Method: It is the most reliable method among all the three existing methods. This is what is done either by commissioned consultant or by the company itself. Due to their convincing nature more often pay commissions also resort to hire consultants. While such surveys can be enormously useful, it is crucial that they ask the right questions in the first place. The data thus observed must clearly be expressed in common terms. Many other sources like newspaper advertisement etc. are also equally helpful for the guidance on current rates of pay. EXTERNAL SURVEY METHOD Whether the wage survey is commissioned through a consultant or by the enterprises self, the approach the same. There are three methods of wage survey: (I) by job title (ii) by job description, and (iii) by job evaluation. Job Title Method: In the job title method, the company collecting information gets the wage details for similar job titles in other companies. For example, the information with regard to wages may be collected for job titles like "turner", "fitter" and "welder". The information obtained from various companies in respect of each job title is tabulated and compared with the wages paid to each of these jobs in the company in question. This method is easy and quick, but not accurate. Many companies will have the same job titles, but the job contents may vary considerably. For example, the job duties of a welder in one company may be entirely different from a welder in another company. Similarly a pattern maker's job in one foundry may be far easier than another pattern maker in another factory. There may be variations in skill, working conditions, and other factors. Thus a wage survey based on job titles does not provide accurate information. The job title method may be used in those cases where the job

content and the titles are more or less standardised. Some examples are "Driver" and "Conductor" is a transport company. Job Description Method: This is the most common method used in the wage survey. The comparison is made on the basis of the job description. The wage data in other industries are collected for these jobs which have the same job-descriptions in the company doing the wage survey. This provides a more realistic basis since the comparison is made job contentwise. The wage differences if any due to variation in job contents can be easily traced. Job Evaluation Method: This is an improvement over the job description method. The descriptions are collected for the jobs selected for wage survey in other industries. These jobs are evaluated under the same plan that was used by the company undertaking the wage survey. If the points obtained by the similar jobs in other industries are the same as the ones for the company, then the jobs are deemed to be identical and a comparison of wages for these jobs would be made. Though this may give accurate results, it is very time-consuming, and the details need to be collected personally by the job analyst. This method is not normally used in wage surveys.

SELECTION OF JOBS FOR WAGE SURVEY: While doing a wage survey it may not be possible to collect information for all the jobs that have been evaluated. It is sufficient if the information is collected for certain representative jobs from which it would be possible to derive the wage curve. These jobs are known as key-jobs or bench-mark jobs and that are commonly understood in the industry. However, a careful selection of these key jobs would be necessary. Some of the considerations which need to be given are (Smyth & Murphy):

these jobs should be distributed over the whole range of jobs; jobs should have remained relatively stable in recent years; the jobs should exist in nearby or competing companies the jobs should be filled by as large a number of workers as possible; e there should not be an unusual shortage or surplus of workers qualified to fill the jobs.

ORGANISATIONS TO BE INCLUDED: In practice, similar units and units which have similar jobs are selected for wage survey. As far as possible, units situated in and around the same locality should be selected since

location may have an important bearing on the wages paid, in fact so also the size of the unit and type of ownership, etc. But this is not always practicable since there may be only one such organisation in a locality or a State. Hence a transport or an electricity undertaking in one State may collect information from all the similar undertakings in other States. Competing organisations in respect of manpower requirement are also included. For example, a paper industry may include all the paper factories throughout the country in its wage survey. If carefully selected, about ten organisation may be an adequate number to be included in the survey. INFORMATION TO BE COLLECTED: Collection of information is the most important aspect in a wage survey, and requires careful planning. The informations collected through a suitably designed questionnaire. The information gathered should include all the fringe benefits in addition to wages. Information may be collected either by getting the questionnaire filled up by the participating companies, or the job analyst himself may collect the information by personal visits and record in the questionnaire, both may be necessary in some cases. The type of information to be collected in a wage survey is as follows: General information including: o name of the company o products manufactured o type of ownership o number of employees

Number of weekly and daily working hours, lunch and tea-breaks. Holiday- General paid holidays casual leave, earned or privilege leave, sick leave, etc. Basic wages, scales of pay Allowances- Dearness allowance, house rent allowance, city allowance, conveyance allowance, shift allowance, etc. Incentives, bonueses, overtime payments Facilities such as conveyance, housing, children's education, free services like electricity, water, fuel, uniform, and canteen.

WAGE SURVEY FOR A PROCESS UNIT: (RAYDONG Chemicals): A Case

Study The wage survey covering motivational means, D.A. practices, basic wage, fringe benefits etc., is carried out for large Process Unit at Faridabad. Integrated approach was necessary to arrive at a rational wage pattern. A detailed questionnaire covering the identification information, wage component, D.A. practices, different allowances practices, leaves and holidays, welfare measures, recruitment/promotion policy and motivational scheme is designed. Benchmark jobs were selected in production and engineering jobs, on different skill levels viz. unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled. The wage survey questionnaire is first filled for the enterprise under question and the filled in questionnaire with blank forms are sent to major industries in the Faridabad region and to leading similar processing industries. After 3 weeks, visits were made to 2 units and 7 industries in the region and the survey data is collected. The third unit had mailed the filled-in survey questionnaire. The other units are either found to be paying very high or very low wages. Hence these thre process industries are representative for any comparison and analysis purposes. Literature survey on D.A. compensation methods have been collected based on the visit to the agencies namely Punjab, Haryana, Delhi (PHD) chamber of commerce, FICCI, CII, ICSSR, CSO, SRCIR, Ministry of Labour and Faridabad Industries Association. Discussions were also held with various experts on this subject. The following reports were also referred:
1.

Wage board reports on cotton, cement, chemical fertilizer type many chemicals etc.

2. National Commission on Labour 3. Relevant Pay Commission Report 4. Bhoothalingam Committee Report The data collected regarding the D.A. practices by the various companies in the wage survey are also used. The data collected from the 5 industries in the Faridabad region have been averaged out for unskilled, semiskilled, skilled and highly skilled category and then compared with the Raydong figures. Accordingly, the three process units average figures for the 4 different skills, have been compared with the Raydong figures. Even though only 3 units average have been compared with the Raydong, this average can be taken as a representative one, since we have not included the extremely highly paying process industries and the lowest

paying units. These analysis have been done on three different basis viz. 1. Basic + D.A. 2. Basic + D.A. + Incentives 3. Basic + DA + Incentives+Cash Allowances These analysis show the comparative figures of the companies average total take home pay (Basic + DA + Incentives + Cash Allowances) with the Raydong figures. The Faridabad average is lower than the Raydong by Rs. 350/ While comparing Basic+DA, by Rs.170/- while comparing Basic+DA+Incentive and Rs. 123/- while comparing Basic+DA+Cash Allowances. In the case of comparison of average 'process industry with the Raydong, a peculiar pattern is noticed. The indirect jobs. in lowest level and in the highest levels are following a straight line, but, the direct jobs are having a hump. This clearly reveals that the selected process industries are paying more piece rate/incentives to direct workmen than the indirect workmen. RECOMMENDATIONS All the hourly rated and day rated workmen's job at Raydong have to be re-classified into 4 classes as mentioned, and put in graphs.

The prevant base rate of Grade VI hourly rated jobs have been revised upwards. All the workmen's personal pay have to be merged with the present base rate and refixed as per the grades suggested. In case any grade I and grade II workmen in any particular job performs the same job to the desired satisfactory levels, both workmen should be fixed in the same base rate. In case there is a definite change in the job as a whole between grade I and grade II, they must be fixed in different base rates.