Support #833
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How is monthly labour income (w_fimnlabgrs_dv) derived?
Added by Peter Spittal over 7 years ago.
Updated about 7 years ago.
Description
I was wondering if you could provide some guidance on how the derived monthly labour income variable in UKHLS (w_fimlabgrs_dv) has been calculated? And, in particular, which sources of pay are included?
The pages for the variable in the codebook (for example [1] below) do not detail which variables are used to calculate it, and I have not been able to find reference to this in the User Guide (I think the relevant section is 3.9.6 from page 88, and this is the only section containing "fimnlabgrs" apart from 3.9.7, though apologies if I have missed the information I'm looking for elsewhere).
In BHPS, I believe a similar variable (wfimnl) was calculated to include (1) usual pay from the respondent's main job, (2) pay from any second jobs and (3) any profits from self-employment. Is this is also the case with w_fimnlabgrs_dv? I would be grateful if you could point me to exactly which variables have been used to calculate it (for example, does it exclude bonus payments and other unusual pay? And does it include self-employment profits?).
Many thanks for your help.
Peter
[1] https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/wave/1/datafile/a_indresp/variable/a_fimnlabgrs_dv
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Many thanks for your enquiry. The Understanding Society team is looking into it and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Best wishes,
Stephanie Auty - Understanding Society User Support Officer
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Dear Peter,
The calculation of this variable is basically the same that of the BHPS equivalent (except that self-employment income is treated very slightly differently). So it is the sum of paygu_dv, jb2pay_dv, and seearngrs_dv. In UKHLS we combine self-employment profits and other forms of self-employment income into a single variable (in contrast to BHPS which separated jsprof and jspayg). Paygu_dv includes usual pay as distinct from last pay received. We do not separately collect bonus payments, but have a flag variable to indicate whether they are included.
Best wishes,
Stephanie Auty - Understanding Society User Support Officer
Dear Stephanie
Many thanks for your fast response, it is very helpful. Just to check I've understood two points correctly: (1) both fimnl in BHPS and fimnlabgrs_dv in UKHLS include both profits and other forms of income for the self-employed, although the underlying variables are different between BHPS and UKHLS, and (2) as fimnlabgrs_dv includes usual pay (as opposed to last pay received) it always excludes bonuses? And the bonus indicator just indicates that usual and last pay are different due to bonuses, not that they have been included in fimnlabgrs_dv?
Again, many thanks for your help with this and for responding so quickly.
Peter
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Dear Peter,
You are correct in your second assumption. On the first assumption, the variables for self-employment income from the questionnaire are the same in BHPS and UKHLS. The difference is that in BHPS there are separate derived variables included in gross labour income for profits for those prepare accounts and usual income for those who do not (wJSPROF and wJSPAYG) whilst in UKHLS there is a single derived variable (wSEEARNGRS) which combines them.
Best wishes,
Stephanie Auty - Understanding Society User Support Officer
- Status changed from Feedback to Resolved
- % Done changed from 80 to 100
- Status changed from Resolved to Closed
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