Understanding Society User Support

Hello Damien,

You may want to look at “paygl”, which refers to gross pay at last payment, or “payu”, which refers to usual pay. To find more information about these variables, you can use our Mainstage Variables search at https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/variables/.

I also recommend reviewing the section on Derived income variables (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/user-guides/main-survey-user-guide/derived-income-variables/) in the Main Survey User Guide to see how income variables are organised within the study.

In addition, you might want to check Component 1: Labour income (fimnlabnet_dv), which forms part of total individual income. Labour income is the sum of three earnings components: (1) net usual pay (paynu_dv), (2) net self-employment income (seearnnet_dv) and (3) net pay in second job (j2paynet_dv).

Finally, Understanding Society Working Paper No. 2019-08: Understanding Society and its Income Data provides a comprehensive overview of income measures and can be accessed here https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/working-papers/2019-08.pdf.

I hope this information is helpful.

Best wishes,
Roberto Cavazos
Understanding Society User Support Team