This question is directed to Tim Moreland as a clarification to a response to “Veterans Supplement Income Information:” As I explore the outgoing rotation group variables (hrsworkorg or earnweek), I am struggling to use this data to acquire information for not only employees that are paid hourly. You mentioned in your response to my previous inquiry, that one “could also use EARNWEEK in combination with hours worked per week and weeks worked per year to estimate hourly wages and annual salaries for non-hourly workers,” yet when I tabulate what data is available for each month/year’s outgoing rotation group, there is an unnaturally high number of “0” values for hrsworkorg, and an unnaturally high number of “9999.99”'s for earnweek, beyond what would make sense given the variable empstat. This makes me think that the “0” or “9999.99” values include both unemployed AND salaried employed respondents.
In short, how can I access information re: work / salary / PT vs FT status, for both hourly-paid AND salaried employees, for the outgoing rotation groups? As a reminder, I am using the ORGs to link up earnings responses with the Vet Supplement respondents, so accesing the March ASEC survey is not a possibility. It’s seeming like the above mentioned data is only available for hourly-paid employees, unless I am missing something… Please advise! Thank you in advance, Tim-- Your responses are always appreciated.
In the Outgoing Rotation/Earner Study series of questions, respondents are asked the periodicity in which they are paid. Those who initially report being paid hourly (PAIDHOUR=NIU) provide both an hourly wage (HOURWAGE) and a usual number of hours worked (HRSWORKORG). Those who do not report being paid hourly are still given the option to provide an hourly wage. If they choose to provide an hourly wage (PAIDHOUR=YES), they do not also provide a value for usual hours worked. Ultimately, hourly wages are only available for those that explicitly provide an hourly wage (about 55% of your sample that can also be linked to an ORG month and work for an employer).
As for the usual number of weeks worked per year (WKSWORKORG), only those respondents that report being paid annually provide a usual number of weeks worked. As a result, annual salaries can only be estimated for those that are paid annually (about 25% of your sample that can also be linked to an ORG month and work for an employer). It is not possible to estimate annual salaries for those respondents that report being paid hourly, weekly, bi-weekly, twice monthly, or monthly (about 75% of your relevant sample).
You mentioned an unnaturally high number of "9999.99"s for the variable EARNWEEK. Keep in mind that unemployed respondents, self-employed respondents and unpaid family workers do not report weekly earnings. Once these groups are excluded, over 99% of your sample that can be linked to an ORG month has a valid EARNWEEK value.
I apologize for not being sufficiently clear in my previous answer, and I hope this helps.
Hi, I have a follow up question to what Tim Moreland says here: “Keep in mind that unemployed respondents, self-employed respondents and unpaid family workers do not report weekly earnings.” Based on my understanding the monthly IPUMS CPS does not have an income variable for self-employed individuals as the ASEC does (e.g. INCTOT). As both EARNWEEK and HOURWAGE are not reported for the self-employed. I see that I may be able to use FAMINC (“Income includes money from jobs; net income from business, farm or rent; pensions; dividends; interest; Social Security payments; and any other monetary income received by family members.”).
But is there a person-level, not household-level, variable to measure self-employed income in the monthly CPS?
Your understanding is correct. In the basic monthly samples, the outgoing rotation group (e.g. “Earner Study”) questions are the only variables that collect information on earnings or income. However, as Tim notes, these variables exclude self-employed workers. Unfortunately, there are not other person level variables that capture self-employed income in the CPS. This sort of analysis is really only feasible using annual data from the ASEC or the US decennial or ACS (available via IPUMS USA).