99999 = N.I.U. (Not in Universe).

See User Note for an explanation of these codes, and the Topcodes Tables page for documentation on income component topcodes over time.

Description

INCGOV indicates how much pre-tax income (if any) the respondent received from government programs other than welfare (covered in INCWELFR) and Social Security (covered in INCSS). More specifically, INCGOV covers income from the following sources: unemployment compensation; workmen's compensation; government employee pensions; and Veterans' benefits.

Amounts are expressed as they were reported to the interviewer; users must adjust for inflation using Consumer Price Index adjustment factors.

Comparability

Along with the effects of inflation and shifts in the universe of the variable, INCGOV changed due to alterations in the number of income variables included. When retirement income was separately reported in the INCRETIR variable beginning in 1976, government employee pensions and the military retirement component of Veteran's payments were placed in INCRETIR and removed from INCGOV.

Beginning in 1988, the remaining sources of income included in INCGOV were reported in the separate variables of INCUNEMP (unemployment compensation), INCWKCOM (worker's compensation), and INCVET (Veterans' benefits). Summing the totals from INCUNEMP, INCWKCOM, and INCVET roughly approximates the INCGOV variable for 1976 forward.

For 1962-1967, income sources included in INCGOV are subsumed in the INCUNERN variable, which encompasses all income from sources other than wages and salaries (INCWAGE) and self-employment income from nonfarm businesses (INCBUS) and farms (INCFARM).

Comparability with IPUMS-USA

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables

• UH_INCOMP_A1
• UH_INCOMP_A2
• UH_INCOMP_A3