# Spouse/partner blank earnings; equivalent for 'CLWKR'
**URL:** https://forum.ipums.org/t/spouse-partner-blank-earnings-equivalent-for-clwkr/5903
**Category:** TIME USE
**Created:** [May 28, 2024, 3:19pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/spouse-partner-blank-earnings-equivalent-for-clwkr/5903 "2024-05-28T15:19:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sanjiv\_Gupta](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Sanjiv_Gupta)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2024, 3:19pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/spouse-partner-blank-earnings-equivalent-for-clwkr/5903/1 "2024-05-28T15:19:34Z")
Hi, I’m seeing a lot of “blank” earnings for employed spouses/partners:
**count if spempnot==1 & spearnweek==99999.98**
**12,932**
Why is this? I tried cross-tabulating with ‘spempstat’ but that doesn’t clarify.
Perhaps relatedly, is there an ATUS variable for spouse/partner employment equivalent to ‘CLWKR’ for respondents? If not, what is most comparable variable?
Thanks much, SG
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### Author:  [@Sanjiv\_Gupta](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Sanjiv_Gupta)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2024, 1:37pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/spouse-partner-blank-earnings-equivalent-for-clwkr/5903/2 "2024-05-31T13:37:13Z")
Please ignore, I just realized blanks are for partners earnings not updated at ATUS. Please see my other question about getting earnings for those partners from CPS.
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### Author:  [@Isabel\_Pastoor](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Isabel_Pastoor)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2024, 9:44pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/spouse-partner-blank-earnings-equivalent-for-clwkr/5903/4 "2024-05-31T21:44:49Z")
The variable [SPEARNWEEK](https://www.atusdata.org/atus-action/variables/SPEARNWEEK#description_section) comes from _ATUS respondents’ spouse’s_ earnings as recorded in the final CPS interview. The ATUS is fielded to a subset of outgoing CPS households, and it is possible to link ATUS respondents to their CPS interview responses. The ATUS offers a number of variables from the CPS, such as [EARNWEEK\_CPS8](https://www.atusdata.org/atus-action/variables/EARNWEEK_CPS8#description_section), which reports an individual’s weekly earnings as recorded in their eighth (final) CPS interview. For _ATUS respondents_ who changed jobs or employers since the final CPS interview, [EARNWEEK](https://www.atusdata.org/atus-action/variables/EARNWEEK#description_section) was updated at the time of the ATUS interview to reflect their new earnings level. For _ATUS respondents_ who did not change jobs or employers since the final CPS interview, EARNWEEK is equal to EARNWEEK\_CPS8. The variable EARNWEEK\_CPS8 is available for _all people who responded to the CPS_ (and who were employed and not self-employed during the final CPS interview), while EARNWEEK is only available for _ATUS respondents_.
The variable SPEARNWEEK is created by IPUMS and it simply reports, for _ATUS respondents only_, the value of EARNWEEK\_CPS8 of their spouse or partner. Weekly earnings information is not updated for non-ATUS respondents at the time of the ATUS interview (note that there is only one respondent per household in the ATUS). SPEARNWEEK is missing when EARNWEEK\_CPS8 is missing for an ATUS respondent’s spouse. EARNWEEK\_CPS8 is missing when an individual in the CPS was not employed, was self-employed, or was working without pay at the time of the final CPS interview. Because SPEARNWEEK comes from the _CPS_, and because it is only updated at the time of the ATUS for _ATUS respondents themselves_, you cannot gain more information about ATUS respondents’ spouses’ earnings by using EARNWEEK\_CPS8.
You may choose to link ATUS respondents’ spouses to earlier CPS interviews (those from months in sample 1-7) and gain information about their past earnings, if they had any. Whether and how to use that information is up to the individual researcher. To link an individual in the ATUS to their CPS responses, you can simply use the variable [CPSIDP](https://www.atusdata.org/atus-action/variables/CPSIDP#codes_section) from IPUMS ATUS and IPUMS CPS to uniquely identify a person across all CPS interviews and their ATUS record.