# Employed but income wage = 0 ?

**URL:** https://forum.ipums.org/t/employed-but-income-wage-0/2662
**Category:** General
**Created:** [November 9, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/employed-but-income-wage-0/2662 "2018-11-09T16:33:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![paul\_stat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8c91f0/32.png) [@paul\_stat](https://forum.ipums.org/u/paul_stat)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/employed-but-income-wage-0/2662/1 "2018-11-09T16:33:00Z")

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Hello,

I am analyzing the CPS-IPUMS ASEC data, but I have found some possible inconsistencies: why are there observations with incwage = 0 and empstat= “at work (10)” or “has a job… (12)”? Shouldn’t employed individuals have a wage?

Thank you very much.

Paul

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### Author: ![JeffBloem](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/jeffbloem/32/40_2.png) [@JeffBloem](https://forum.ipums.org/u/JeffBloem)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/employed-but-income-wage-0/2662/2 "2018-11-09T22:53:00Z")

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The reason for this is that the [EMPSTAT](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/EMPSTAT#codes_section) variable asks about current work status while the [INCWAGE](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/INCWAGE#description_section) variable identifies the wage or salary income during the previous calendar year. Therefore, these two variables relate to slightly different time periods. For a list of work related variables associated with work during the previous calendar year, look at the [work variables available in the ASEC questionnaire](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/group?id=asec_work).