Description

Available in all survey years, FTOTINCMEPS is an IPUMS MEPS constructed variable that sums total personal income (INCTOT) (excluding tax refunds and capital gains) across the MEPS family to report the total income for each person's MEPS family.

MEPS families are defined as a group of two or more people related by birth, marriage, adoption, fostering, or cohabitation, and residing together. Unlike the CPS defined family, MEPS family does include unmarried partners and foster children.

FTOTINCMEPS was derived by constructing person-level total income comprising annual earnings from wages, salaries, bonuses, tips, commissions; business and farm games and losses; unemployment and workers' compensation; interest and dividends; alimony, child support, and other private cash transfers; private pensions, IRA withdrawals, social security, and veterans payments; supplemental security income and cash welfare payments from public assistance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and related programs; gains or losses from estates, trusts, partnerships, S corporations, rent, and royalties; and a small amount of "other" income. Person-level income excluded tax refunds and capital gains. FTOTINCMEPS was constructed from the public (edited and top-coded) versions of total individual income

Person-level income totals were then summed over MEPS family members, as defined by FAMIDYR, to yield MEPS family-level total income.

Beginning in 2007, the variable FTOTVAL was constructed from the person-level total income variable (INCTOT). Additionally, the variable FTOTINCCPS is IPUMS MEPS constructed, and offers total family income for CPS families (excludes foster children and unmarried partners). Like FTOTINCMEPS, FTOTINCCPS is constructed from the public (edited and top-coded) versions of total individual income)

FTOTINCMEPS is 9 columns wide with 2 implied decimals. That is, a value of 012345678 should be interpreted as 123456.78. The command files delivered with IPUMS extracts automatically divide FTOTINCMEPS by 100, so no further adjustment is needed.

Comparability

There are no comparability issues.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2022

Weights

• 1996-2022 : PERWEIGHT

Flags