# Data Quality Flag Earnings

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/data-quality-flag-earnings/4718>\
**Category:** CPS\
**Created:** [June 16, 2022, 5:33am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/data-quality-flag-earnings/4718 "2022-06-16T05:33:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sheldon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@sheldon](https://forum.ipums.org/u/sheldon)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 5:33am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/data-quality-flag-earnings/4718/1 "2022-06-16T05:33:01Z")

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I was wondering if data quality flags for earnings variables (incwage, incbus, incfarm) are available for 1979-2015. I couldn’t find them on IPUMS. Only data quality flag for incwage for 1977-1987. If I am not mistaken, the data quality flags for earnings variables are available in the original CPS data. So I was wondering if it is possible to get them, even in a non-harmonized version?

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**Author:** ![Matthew\_Bombyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Matthew\_Bombyk](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Matthew_Bombyk)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 7:59pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/data-quality-flag-earnings/4718/2 "2022-06-16T19:59:21Z")

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These are available as unharmonized variables. To find them, you can follow this process. First visit the unharmonized variables page for the variable you are interested in. [Here is the page for INCWAGE](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/INCWAGE#variable_type_section). Then, choose the unharmonized variable you are interested in. For example, [UH\_INCWAG\_A4](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/UH_INCWAG_A4) gives the unharmonized variable for 1982-1984. The A1, A2, etc. suffix gives the order of the UH variables (A1 is the earliest time period). Once you go to the page for unharmonized variables, you can select the [Flags page](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/UH_INCWAG_A4#flags_section) to see the unharmonized data quality flags and add them to your cart. Note the flags might correspond to different time periods than the income variables themselves.

You can also add the unharmonized variable to your cart, and then add the flag during the Extract Request step. See screenshot:

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/ipums/original/1X/aec89378c7c4647c1824f4862d843a416590f071.png)

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**Author:** ![sheldon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@sheldon](https://forum.ipums.org/u/sheldon)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 9:11pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/data-quality-flag-earnings/4718/3 "2022-06-16T21:11:44Z")

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That’s really helpful, thanks!