Is there a continuous income variable in the ATUS?

TIME USE
1

Hi there,

I’m trying to create a family-size adjusted income variable in the ATUS. The purpose is to rank households or families (not sure which will be easier yet) into income deciles. Is there a good way to do that?

So far, I’ve only encountered a categorical income variable for families. It seems like that would be hard to adjust for family size, because you’d have to make some assumptions if you, say, give every family the floor or midpoint value of their income bracket to make the adjustment.

As a work around, I’m thinking about estimating yearly earnings with the “weekly earnings” variable and the “number of weeks worked variable.”

Any pointers would be much appreciated. Thanks!

2

Since households chosen for participation in the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) are selected randomly from households that are exiting from participation in the Current Population Survey (CPS), it is possible to link the ATUS respondents to IPUMS-CPS data. Specifically, you will be interested in the continuous total family income variable (FTOTVAL). You can find detailed instructions on linking ATUS-X data to IPUMS-CPS data here.

Hope this helps.