VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR Income (EC5) FULL MEASURE NAME Worker income by workplace (earnings) LAST UPDATED May 2019 DESCRIPTION Income reflects the median earnings of individuals and households from employment, as well as the income distribution by quintile. Income data highlight how employees are being compensated for their work on an inflation-adjusted basis. DATA SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census Count 4Pb (1970) Form STF3 (1980-1990) Form SF3a (2000) https://nhgis.org U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey Form B08521 (2006-2017; place of employment) http://api.census.gov Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index All Urban Consumers Data Table (1970-2017; specific to each metro area) http://data.bls.gov CONTACT INFORMATION Vitalsigns.info@bayareametro.gov METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator) Income data reported in a given year reflects the income earned in the prior year (decennial Census) or in the prior 12 months (American Community Survey); note that this inconsistency has a minor effect on historical comparisons (for more information, go to: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/methodology/ASA_nelson.pdf). American Community Survey 1-year data is used for larger geographies – metropolitan areas and counties – while smaller geographies rely upon 5-year rolling average data due to their smaller sample sizes. Quintile income for 1970-2000 is imputed from Decennial Census data using methodology from the California Department of Finance (for more information, go to: http://www.dof.ca.gov/Forecasting/Demographics/Census_Data_Center_Network/documents/How_to_Recalculate_a_Median.pdf). Bay Area income is the population weighted average of county-level income. Income has been inflated using the Consumer Price Index specific to each metro area; however, some metro areas lack metro-specific CPI data back to 1970 and therefore adjusted data is unavailable for some historical data points. Note that current MSA boundaries were used for historical comparison by identifying counties included in today’s metro areas.