Monday, January 21, 2013

Personal Income by Gender

Question

A researcher is comparing the distribution of total personal income TOTINCP by gender and has found what he believes is an anomaly. For total personal income TOTINCP $150,000 or more, we find 0 women and 4,509 men, unweighted. Does this seem plausible?

Answer

This is not an anomaly at all – in 2001, female income (across Canada) and male income in the Maritimes (and territories?) was capped at $120,000. See http://equinox2.uwo.ca/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll?QB0=AND&QF0=Uniqueid&QI0=C2001PUMFI+TOTINCP&MR=20&TN=Equinox&DF=UserShowVariableEN&RF=UserShowVariableEN&AC=QBE_QUERY. There are the same counts in SDA@CHASS. However, if you look in the documentation: http://prod.library.utoronto.ca:8090/datalib/codebooks/c/cc01/pumfs/ind/documentation_e_april.pdf and search 'High and Low Income Limits', there are two limits related to incomes. For females (and some males) it is L1 $120,000. That means, the maximum value in the field TOTINCP for females in the pumf is 120,000 and the maximum for some groups of males: 200,000.