Structure of Earnings Survey

The survey aims to provide accurate data comparable across countries and over time on earnings in those countries for policy-making and research purposes. It’s a large sample survey of enterprises on the relationships between the level of pay and individual characteristics of employees (sex, age, occupation, length of service, highest educational level attained, etc.) and those of their employer (economic activity, size and location of the enterprise).

The statistics refer to enterprises with at least 10 employees operating in all areas of the economy except public administration, as defined in the Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community (NACE). Business activities, which are included in SES microdata, are mentioned in NACE Rev. 2 sections B to S excluding O (NACE Rev. 1.1 sections C to O excluding L until reference year 2006).



SUFs contain anonymised microdata for 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 from the following countries: BE-BG-CZ-DE (not in SES 2002) and EE-EL-ES-FR-HR-IT-CY-LV-LT-LU-HU-NL-PL-PT-RO-SK-FI-SE-UK-NO-IS (since 2018).



The SES microdata not anonymised (secure use files) can be accessed via Eurostat's Safe Centre in Luxembourg and contain data for the following years: 1995 (IE-ES-FR-IT-LU-SE), 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 (CZ-EE-IE-EL-ES-FR-HR-IT-CY-LV-LT-LU-HU-MT-NL-PL-PT-RO-SI-SK-FI-SE-NO-IS).