The purpose of this publication is to help the reader better understand
what the Wage Records database is, how it is currently used, and how it
will be used in the future. First let us define Wage Records. The best
explanation of Wage Records that I have read is contained in an article
written by Wayne Gosar for the May 1995 Wyoming Labor Force Trends.
An excerpt from that article follows (comprising all of part A).
Part A: Wage Records Defined (Wayne Gosar, Trends, May 1995)
WHAT ARE WAGE RECORDS?
Wage records are an administrative database [see Appendix A] used to calculate [Unemployment Insurance] UI benefits for employees who have been laid-off through no fault of their own. By law, each employer who has covered employees, must submit tax reports to the state showing each employee's wage.
The required information on this tax report includes social security number (SSN) for each covered employee, year, quarter, and wages earned in the quarter. In fact, as you read this article, chances are your employer is in the process of reporting your total wages for 1st quarter 1995 (January, February, March) to us.
The information on this tax report is then entered into the Department of Employment's mainframe computer. The mainframe computer only maintains the previous six quarters of wage records. For example: at the end of March 1995, the wage record database included data from third quarter 1993 to fourth quarter 1994. When a new quarter is added, the oldest quarter is dropped off the system.
Before the oldest quarter is dropped off the mainframe we "download"
the wage record files to a microcomputer. Thus we are able to maintain
wage histories for workers in Wyoming over more than six quarters. Previous
to our downloads this historic data was lost and no longer available for
research.
WHAT TYPES OF EMPLOYMENT ARE NOT INCLUDED IN WAGE RECORDS?
On page 4 of last month's Trends, we published the 1994 Annual Average Civilian Labor Force estimate for Wyoming as calculated by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program. In 1994, the annual average employment was 250,000 people. If we compare the LAUS estimate to the wage record average social security numbers for 1994, we see that wage records account for approximately 86% of the labor force. If wage records do not account for all people in the labor force, who are we missing?
The following is a list of typical employment not covered by UI wage
records. They are:
WHAT CAN WAGE RECORDS DO FOR US?
Wage records can support data trends. Wyoming Labor Force Trends reports employment in terms such as "jobs" in Current Employment Statistics (CES), or by "estimated labor force" in LAUS. We further try to explain employment by industry (ES-202). These concepts work well when these programs point in the same direction. However, when they disagree we are left to guess which program produces the best data. Because wage records are reported by SSN's we can look at the individual workers and find out more details about their total experience over time. In essence, we can use wage records to validate our estimates.
For example: neither CES, LAUS, nor ES-202 can measure multiple job holding. Wage records can. We continue to see the rate of multiple job holding climb over the three year period. We also see the rate of increase for the average wage slow down. In particular, the 4th quarter 1994 mean wage only increased by $53 from 1993 4th quarter. That is a dramatic change from the previous year. This trend will become evident in other programs, such as the ES-202 program, six months from now.
IS THERE ANY PROTECTION OF THE DATA?
Yes. By law we are bound to keep the data confidential. Wyoming Employment
Security Law, 27-3-603, states that any "...information maintained pursuant
to this act shall not be disclosed in a manner which reveals the identity
of the employing unit or individual. The confidentiality limitations of
this section do not apply to transfers of information between the divisions
of the department of employment so long as the transfer of information
is not restricted by federal law, rule or contract. Any employee who discloses
information outside of the department in violation of federal or state
law may be terminated without progressive discipline."
Part B: How Has the Wage Records Database Been Used in the Past?
Now that we know more about the Wage Records database, let us take a
look at how it has been used in the past. The following is an annotative
bibliography of all Wyoming Labor Force Trends articles involving
Wage Records published since May 1995.
Wayne M. Gosar, "Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Summary Statistics: A New Way To Look At Wyoming," pp. 4-8.
Purpose: "Research and Planning has, for the past two years, been monitoring this data and we are now releasing summary data series to the public."
Study Type: This article explained what Wage Records data
are, how they are collected, for what they are currently used and future
uses of this data. It also introduced a new summary statistics report.
Wayne M. Gosar, "Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Summary Statistics: Update," pp. 6-8.
Purpose: To provide updated Wage Record Summary Statistics.
It also provides an explanation of why an update is required.
Gayle C. Edlin, "Steady Work Pays Off: Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Records Revisited," pp. 1-6.
Purpose: "Now, wage records provide compelling evidence that workers who stay with the same employer for extended periods of time earn substantially more than other workers. Furthermore, the wages of steady workers stand a greater chance of keeping pace with the rate of inflation."
Study Type: This study used Wage Records and ES-202 data
to see if there was a difference between the average wage of steady workers
compared to non-steady workers by industry.
Wayne M. Gosar, "Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Summary Statistics: Update," pp. 6-7.
Purpose: Update Wage Record Summary Statistics
Steven Butler, "EXCERPT: Tracking University of Wyoming Graduates Into The Wyoming Work-Force," p. 8.
Purpose: "This report studied University of Wyoming graduates earning degrees from 1983 through 1993 and checked these individuals against the Wyoming Unemployment Insurance covered employees from 1992 through 1994."
Study Type: Post program follow-up using Wage Records.
Wayne M. Gosar, "Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Summary Statistics: Update," pp. 6-7.
Purpose: Update Wage Record Summary Statistics
Wayne M. Gosar, "Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Summary Statistics: Update," pp. 8-9.
Purpose: Update Wage Record Summary Statistics. "For the
first time in Wage Record history, the current quarter did not maintain
an upward trend in comparison with the prior year's data."
Brett Judd and Gregg Detweiler, "The Relation of Age and Gender to Employment in Wyoming: Part One of a New Analysis Utilizing Wage Records," pp. 1-4.
Purpose: To see if age and gender effect wages.
Study Type: Combining Wage Records, ES-202 and Driver's
License files into one file in order to do the analysis required to see
if gender effects wages.
Brett Judd and Gregg Detweiler, "The Relation of Age and Gender to Employment in Wyoming: Part Two of a New Analysis Utilizing Wage Records," pp. 1-5.
Purpose: To see if age and gender effect wages.
Study Type: Combining Wage Records, ES-202 and Driver's
License files into one file in order to do the analysis required to see
if gender effects wages.
Sherry Yu, "Unemployment Insurance (UI) Benefit Qualification Part One: Industry Analysis," pp. 1-5.
Purpose: This study was done to see if the UI system is coping with the changes in the labor market.
Study Type: Matching four quarters of Wage Records to
the Driver's License and ES-202 databases in order to get information on
wage, age, gender and industry of employment.
Wayne M. Gosar, "Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Summary Statistics: Update," pp. 8-9.
Purpose: Update Wage Record Summary Statistics. 1992 Participation
was added to the statistics in this issue.
Sherry Yu, "Unemployment Insurance (UI) Benefit Qualification Part Two: Gender and Age Analysis," pp. 1-4.
Purpose: This study was done to see if the UI system is coping with the changes in the labor market.
Study Type: Matching four quarters of Wage Records to
the Driver's License and ES-202 databases in order to get information on
wage, age, gender and industry of employment.
Gayle C. Edlin, "Changing Jobs Pays Off (Based on the Original Study, Tracking Job Changers in Wyoming's Economy)," pp. 1-6.
Purpose: "Did individuals between the first quarter of 1992 and the second quarter of 1995 increase their earnings after one employment change event?"
Study Type: Wage Records and ES-202 files were merged.
Then steady workers with at least one primary job change were identified.
Brett Judd, "Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Summary Statistics: Update," pp. 10-11.
Purpose: Update Wage Record Summary Statistics. One addition
and two changes were made to the summary statistics in this issue. The
addition was adding a category for Pseudo Social Security Numbers (SSN's
that begin with 000). The first change was in the way the total wages for
each group were calculated. The second change was in the way the 1992 Participation
was figured for the annual average.
Mike Evans, "Where Does the Wyoming Worker Come From?," pp. 1-6.
Purpose: "This article will expand on previous research examining the earnings and demographic make up of Wyoming's labor market."
Study Type: Combining Wage Records, ES-202 and Driver's
License files into one file in order to do the expanded analysis on Wyoming's
labor market.
Carol Toups, research by Lee Saathoff, "Work Experiences of Wyoming's Youth," pp. 1-6.
Purpose: This article tries to answer the question. How do youth interact with the Labor Market?
Study Type: Combining Wage Records, ES-202, Driver's License
and Vocational Rehabilitation files into one file in order to track youth
in the labor market.
Mary Beth O'Loughlin, "Gender, Tenure and Wages," pp. 1-5.
Purpose: "In this article, we attempt to determine whether or not job tenure is the key variable that accounts for the earnings differences between males and females."
Study Type: Employees that worked 19 consecutive quarters
starting in the second quarter of 1992 were selected from Wage Records
and industry information was obtained by matching with the ES-202 file.
Age, industry and tenure were taken into account.
Lee Saathoff, "Wyoming Public Education Industry (K-12): Aging Employment in the Wyoming Education System," pp. 1-3, 8.
Purpose: "It is an exploratory study of employees in the Wyoming public education system from kindergarten through high school (K-12)."
Study Type: Aging of the educational system's employees
and its effects on the labor market.
Brett Judd, "The Wyoming Wage Record Classification System," pp. 1-3.
Purpose: To "...introduce a new way to count the number of multiple job holders."
Study Type: Six quarters of Wage Records and several FoxPro programs were used.
(See Appendix C.)
Mike Evans, "Understanding the Different Employment Measures," pp. 1-4.
Purpose: To describe the different employment numbers available to the public.
Study Type: This article is a brief description of these
different numbers and how they are collected and used.
Kimber Wichmann, "An Examination of the Retail Trade Industry in Wyoming," pp. 1-7, 16.
Purpose: This article examines three main areas of Wyoming's Retail Trade industry.
Study Type: This article uses Wage Records, ES-202, Driver's
License and CES data to examine the Retail Trade industry.
Carola Cowan, "Wage Rate Increases of the Top and Bottom 20 Percent of Wages: Do They Increase at Different Rates?," pp. 1-5.
Purpose: "The following are the questions this article attempt to answer for the Equality State: Are the top 20 percent of wages increasing faster than the bottom 20 percent of wages? What is the gender distribution? Is there a difference in the gender distribution? What industries are represented?"
Study Type: Wage Records, ES-202 and Driver's License
files were merged in order to obtain the data needed to answer the research
questions.
Sherry Yu, "An Analysis of Wyoming's Employment Structure and Wage Component," pp. 9-14.
Purpose / Study Type: "This research, on the other hand,
uses two years (1996 and 1997) of Unemployment Insurance (UI, see Glossary)
wage records (the earnings of individual persons) to display detailed information
on Wyoming's employment structure and wage component."
Norman Baron, "Wyoming Unemployment Insurance Wage Record Summary Statistics: Update," pp. 4-6.
Purpose: Update Wage Record Summary Statistics. A few
changes were made to the summary statistics since they were last published.
The category for Pseudo Social Security Numbers (SSN's that begin with
000) was removed to its own file and will no longer be reported in these
statistics. Also, the percent increases in jobs, SSN's and total wages
were added.
Norman Baron, "Wage Records and the Consumer Price Index," pp. 1-3.
Purpose: To answer the following question, "Has one's wages in Wyoming kept up with inflation?"
Study Type: Comparison between Wage Records and the CPI.
G. Lee Saathoff, "Separation from the Wyoming Labor Market," pp. 1-5.
Purpose: "This article answers some of the questions relative to separations. We define a separation from the labor market, why it occurs, what level of separations Wyoming has experienced over the last few years and what factors cause individuals to leave the Wyoming labor market." Part one of a five-part series.
Study Type: Use of Wage Records to track individuals entering
and leaving the UI covered Labor Market. Matched with ES-202 to link these
individuals to industries.
G. Lee Saathoff and Gregg Detweiler, "Afterword: Unemployment Insurance Claims in the Mining Industry," p. 6.
Purpose: "Wyoming's monthly initial and continued Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims showed an unusual relationship compared to total covered employment level in the Mining industry during 1998 ... Research & Planning has analyzed the possible causes of this relationship."
Study Type: "To perform our analysis, we utilized UI wage
records, benefit claimants data, and total nonagricultural wage and salary
employment and personal interviews with drilling companies reporting the
highest number of unemployment claims."
Krista R. Shinkle, "Wyoming-Attached Workers: Living and Working in Wyoming," pp. 1-6.
Purpose: "Research & Planning continues its look a Wyoming's labor force attachment with part two of a five-part series. . . . The criteria for including an individual in the study were that s/he worked in Wyoming during any quarter of 1992, and was still working in Wyoming during any quarter of 1997. For the purposes of this article, only workers who held five or more jobs during the study period were included in the database."
Study Type: "The database for this article was compiled
using Wage Records and a demographics file." The ES-202 file was also used
to obtain industries.
Valerie A. Davis, "Seasonal Variation in Separation from the Wyoming Labor Market?," p. 7.
Purpose: "The Map shows separation rates by county for 1995.
Do people leaving the labor market and seasonal changes coincide?"
Gregg Detweiler, "Industry Variations in Wyoming's Steady Workers," pp. 1-6.
Purpose: "This article focuses on those individuals who worked for the same employer between 1992 and 1997 (steady workers) and also compares demographic and wage data by industry." Part three of a five-part series.
Study Type: "To identify steady workers, the analyst combined
UI wage records from 1992 to 1997 and matched social security numbers (SSN's)
and the employers' UI numbers. . . . The database was then matched to the
Wyoming driver's license and Employment Services databases to obtain demographic
data."
Tony Glover, "Employment Service Utilization for Individuals with Multiple Employers," p. 8.
Purpose: "This article demonstrates the impact of working for multiple employers on the utilization of services provided by the Department of Employment (DOE).
Study Type: "The Wage Record database from 1992 to 1997
was combined with the following three DOE services' databases: Employment
Services 1994 to 1998 (ES), Unemployment Insurance Claims 1992 to 1998
(UI) and Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) to produce this brief report."
Mike Evans, "Job Turnover and Hire Rates in Wyoming," pp.1-5.
Purpose/Study Type: "This month we will look at the overall job flow and turnover data for the state from the individual and employer perspective using Unemployment Insurance (UI) Wage Records for individuals and UI Employment Specific (ES-202) data for employers." Part four in a five-part series.
Part B-1: Other Databases Used in Analysis
The above bibliography shows that the Wage Records database is most often not used by itself, but in combination with other administrative databases. A brief description of some of these other databases is given below.
Part B-1a: ES-202 (Wage Records' Older Sibling)
This database, also derived from UI tax records and sometimes called QUI, contains information regarding business establishments. This database is linked to Wage Records (via the establishment's UI tax ID number) in order to place individuals in industries and place of employment.
This database was obtained from the Department of Transportation (via P.L. 103-322, see Appendix B). It is used in combination with other databases in the process of developing a demographic file which is then linked to Wage Records.
Part B-1c: Employment Services
When you go into your local office and apply for a job or file an unemployment insurance claim, information is taken and entered into the corresponding database. These two databases are used in conjunction with other databases, such as Driver's License, in the process of developing a demographic file which is then linked to Wage Records.
Part B-1d: Other State/Federal Programs (JTPA, Voc Rehab)
Databases from Other State/Federal programs such as Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and Vocational Rehabilitation (Voc Rehab) are linked to Wage Records in order to do post program follow-up as well as collect demographic information. Post program follow-up using Wage Records is the new kid on the block. The newly passed Workforce Investment Act requires JTPA and Voc Rehab to develop some kind of program evaluation using Wage Records.
Part B-1e: Educational Institutions
Enrollment and/or completer records from various Educational Institutions
around the state were collected for input into Wyoming's SARAS (State and
Area Resource Analysis System). A few of these institutions allowed us
to use this data for other statistical purposes including adding demographics
to Wage Records files.
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