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UHRSWORK is a 3-digit numeric variable.

998 = Don't Know
999 = NIU (Not In Universe)

Description

UHRSWORKORG reports the total number of hours the respondent who is paid hourly usually works per week at their main job. UHRSWORKORG is one of the earner study/outgoing rotation group questions. Private wage or salaried workers are asked the periodicity for which they are paid. Workers who are paid by the hour, excluding those who are self-employed, are asked the hourly wage, and then are asked how many hours they usually work per week at that rate. Researchers should use the EARNWT weight with this variable.

Researchers should note that PAIDHOUR, which identifies workers paid hourly, is more inclusive than the universe for UHRSWORKORG. This stems from the fact that PAIDHOUR is the combination of two variables that assess hourly work status while usual hours worked for hourly wage earners is only asked of individuals who respond to one of the two questions that they are paid hourly.

UHRSWORKORG differs from UHRSWORKLY because the period of reference for UHRSWORKLY is the preceding year, whereas UHRSWORKORG refers to the current usual number of hours worked per week. Additionally, UHRSWORKORG differs from UHRSWORK1 in that UHRSWORK1 does not have the qualifier "at this rate" in the question. Note that for basic samples 1982-1988 and ASECs 1982-1987, the outgoing rotation usual hours question wording matches that of UHRSWORK1. Thus this variable is included in UHRSWORK1 for those years, not in UHRSWORKORG. AHRSWORK1 specifically gives the number of hours worked last week at the main job, regardless of whether this was the usual number of hours worked.

UHRSWORKORG is one of the Outgoing Rotation/Earner Study questions.

See the Hours Worked Variables Notes for an overview of the different actual and usual hours worked variables available.

Comparability

This variable is comparable across available years.

According to Technical Paper 66, issued jointly by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, individuals eligible for the earner study are civilians age 15 and older in rotation groups 4 or 8 who are not self-employed.  In any given month, approximately 1/4 of the CPS sample is in the earner study and each household should appear in the earner study exactly twice. Based on documentation from Unicon and NBER, and after an inspection of the original CPS data, we recommend that users impose the CPS eligibility restrictions in any analyses of earner study variables.

Universe

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