Agricultural Worker Supplement Sample Notes

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The Agricultural Worker Supplement contains data about those who did farm work during the past year. This supplement is available in December of 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1987. All samples include information about earnings from farm work, frequency of farm work, and location of farm work. For those who report doing nonfarm work during the year, information about that nonfarm work is also collected.

Adults age 14+ who did farm work for wages or salary during the past year are included in the supplement. In 1985 and 1987, the original CPS documentation claims that respondents age 8+ were included in the questions about agricultural work. However, it seems that no children in the survey responded that they had done farm work during the past year. The years in which children are not included in the universe for supplement questions about agricultural do contain some information about children in the households of hired farm workers. Information about unpaid farm work is also included in this period.

In 1977, only the number of children related to the head is available. Users should further note that the 1977 sample contains no records under age 14. In 1979, no information about children in the households of hired farm workers is available from the supplement. Whether children 8-13 did farm work and, if so, how many is included in 1981 and 1983.

AWSUPPWT is the appropriate weight for analysing the Agricultural Worker Supplement. This variable is identical to WTFINL for all samples containing this supplement save for 1981, where the supplement is weighted using a 1980-based weight. In this sample, two records have missing values for the weight variable. As these records also have missing values throughout the supplement, these records have a AWSUPPWT value of zero.

The documentation for the 1977 Agricultural Worker Supplement contains the following definitions and classifications. They do not appear in documentation for any other years. Whether these are valid beyond 1977 is unclear.

Farm manager, supervisor, or foreman - A person who manages a farm for someone else as a tenant or sharecropper. This includes organization, seasonal planning, management, purchasing, and other similar operations. It also includes persons who were primarily in charge of other farm workers, machinery, or materials during 1977, but were not actually in charge of operating the farm or coordinating all farm activities.

Farm work for cash wages or salary

Hand labour, crop harvest - Persons whose major hired farm work involved the manual harvest of a farm product, such as cutting celery, cabbage, etc.; picking cotton, peas, beans, apples, oranges, or topping sugar beets. This type of work includes persons whose major farm work was the manual loading and unloading of vehicles used in the harvest.

Hand labour, other - Persons who does other hand labour besides harvesting. This includes such activities as chopping cotton, pruning trees, weeding, mulching, etc.

Harvesting of crops - This includes harvesting of field crops, fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc. It includes not only the cutting and gathering of the crops, but also the loading and unloading, crew supervision, and other types of work incidental to the harvest.

Livestock or poultry worker - A person whose primary responsibilities included the care and handling of livestock and/or poultry as well as the operation of equipment pertaining to this work, such as incubators, milking machines, etc.

Machine or equipment operator - An individual whose primary farm work is the operation of farm machine or equipment. Include in this group such persons as tractor or truck drivers, combine operators, and operators of such farm equipment as reapers, threshers, pickers, plows, seeders, mills, water pumps, and fork-lifts.

Number of different days worked - The total number of different days on which any farm wage work was done, even if only for a few hours on each day. Fractions of days are counted as complete days.

Other hired farm work - This is a residual category. Examples include the repair and maintenance of farm machinery or equipment, and the packing, grading, or checking of produce.

Seasonal farm work - Examples of seasonal work include preparing seedbeds, pruning trees, and vines, and chopping tobacco. Sheepshearing and other seasonal work with animal is included.

1977 Agricultural Product Classifications:

Agricultural Worker Supplement Codebooks

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