Wage indicator family

PayWizard is part of the international Wage indicator project, which started in 2001 with the Dutch site Loonwijzer. Now there is a whole family on line in 8 other European countries, with more in development. Essentially all wage indicators share the same concept. The identical core questionnaire and method allow for international comparison of data. But each website has a separate national team, providing labour market specific content unique for every country.

How does the salary check work?
Site visitors can check their own earnings, comparing them with users whose data have been previously gathered and stored in PayWizard. By comparison you can find out whether or not you are being treated fairly by your employer, and paid the market rate for your job.

In contrast with other online pay checkers the data intake is strictly separated from the Salary check itself. Wages data is only fed back into the salary check after cleaning and scientific weighting by labour market experts, thereby improving its accuracy.

Based on continuous reseach into wage indicator data, we now know that some items are more significant in determining earnings than others. We found these were:

• education
• work experience
• being a manager
• taking a career break
• having predominantly male colleagues in the same job
• promotion
• size of company

However these factors differ in importance between the different professions. Once 50 or more individuals in the same profession have filled in the questionnaire, we can create an accounting rule for the profession. So far the Dutch team have identified the trends influencing pay in 170 job roles.

Tip: Use the PayWizard to experiment with different professions. You might be surprised about your own assumptions and prejudices.

What kind of data is gathered?
The site user chooses from a list of prepared jobs. Apart from questions directly related to your job, the questionnaire asks about:

• working hours
• working history
• company
• contract of employment
• demographic details

Through analysing people's situations in more details, we can draw some interesting conclusions. For example, analysis of Dutch data helped show that if your workplace has a majority of male colleagues you are all likely to be paid more. Also the salary check sheds light on the position of women re-entering the job marker: in many professions there can be a clear difference in pay.

Men and women are not equally paid. How come?
We know that men earn relatively more than women, and that some migrant workers earn considerably less. We also know some of the reasons why. Because men usually have a longer uninterrupted working life, and work in different professions and sectors from women, their salaries are often higher (try testing this with the Salary Check) We also know that migrant workers and ethnic minorities sometimes don't have equal access to education or working experience and many work in less secure jobs.

But as yet we still know too little. Are women and migrant workers deliberately discriminated against in terms of pay? Our researchers are on the case, and the data we gather from PayWizard may help them get to the bottom of issues like this. This is one of the reasons why the questionnaire asks about your country of origin, and more detail on who you are. Want to know more? Check the reference list for the Wage Indicator project.

What is the Wage Indicator Foundation/Stichting Loonwijzer?
The Stichting Loonwijzer (Dutch for Wage Indicator Foundation) is the owner of the Wage Indicator concept. The Stichting Loonwijzer is a joint initiative of FNV (Dutch Confederation of Trade Unions), the University of Amsterdam/AIAS (Institute of Labour Studies) and Dutch careers site Monsterboard They make up the board of supervisors. the foundation manages the Wage Indicators. the aims of the Stichting Loonwijzer/Wage Indicator Foundation are:

• Upkeep and development of the concept
• More scientific insight
• Gain knowledge to inform policies on employment conditions
• Encourage greater transparency of salaries in the labour marker
• Empower employees through knowledge of their peergroup earnings
• Help highlight and reduce unfair wage gaps due to gender and ethnicity

For more information on the virtual products of the Wage Indicator Foundation see the list of websites in the menu at:

• Wage Indicator
• Loonwijzer

Board of supervisors

• Wiemer Salverda, Managing Director University of Amsterdam/AIAS
• Sidney Mock, Marketing Director, Monsterboard
• Agnes Jongerius, member of the board FNV

Address: Stichting Loonwijzer, Plantage Muidergracht 4, 1018 TV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Funding and partnerships
Grants from funds are the most important source of income. In addition licences and banner sales generate some income, but relatively little. the wage indicator websites have been kept online over the past few years by pulling out all the stops. Most money that was generated by this effort consisted of grants or subsidies:

• The Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs & Employment subsidised in 2001,2002 and 2004 a part of the Wage Indicator research n the framework of its program Renewal of Labour Relations.
• The Woliweb (Work Life Web) project (2004-2007) on 'The socio-economic determinants of citizens' work life attitudes, preferences and perceptions, using data from the continuous web-based European Wage Indicator Survey' is supported by the European Commission's socio-economic research programme (FP6)

Each country has its own 'subsidy market'. Without successful acquisition in this market the Wage Indicator concept would perish. Licences are also a source of income. The concept is put at the disposal of website companies who operate on the labour market too. In The Netherlands there are licenses for Monsterboard.nl; MSN.nl; Content.nl; Vrouwonline.nl; Telegraaf.nl.

Granting of licenses increases the outreach and appeal of the wage indicator websites, also among professions with a lower rating. In this repsect licences are an important promotion instrument. if you would like to discuss a license for your site, please get in touch