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Do we even trust our leaders to help?
Retiring old ideas about retirement
Social Security more solvent than most Americans realize
Focus group participants discuss retirement
Series looks at middle-class angst
Insurance misery has no easy cure
Health-care matchup finds Ohio falls short
Most Read Stories
Man robbed at Tallmadge Avenue eatery
Four teens restrain man, take items from his Akron home
Police: Ohio girl dies after fall into snow bank
Complaints against officer keep coming
Another winter punch heading toward Ohio
Cuyahoga Falls residents come home to find burning couch on balcony
Blogs:
First Bell - On Education:
No City of Akron basketball tonight
Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
Akron Zips:
Late surge gives Zips ugly road win
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Citizens United v. F.E.C. (Part 4): Kennedy's and O'Connor's Basic Approaches to Constitutional Decisionmaking – Top Down and Bottom Up
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
Track HR Research
Akron Gamer:
'Tecmo Bowl' recreation of Super Bowl XLIV
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
Published on Sunday, Sep 30, 2007
Wage and salary figures used in this project were produced by Beacon Journal reporter David Knox as part of a Kiplinger fellowship at Ohio State University's John Glenn School of Public Affairs.
The numbers were drawn from Census Bureau data prepared by the University of Minnesota's Population Center in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series.
Unlike the familiar census tables that add up people and households grouped by gender, race, income and numerous other categories, microdata are the answers given by individuals on the census ''long-form'' questionnaires, stripped of names, addresses and other information to prevent identification.
The advantage of microdata is that the raw records can be grouped in new ways.
To track how wages have changed over years for successive generations of workers, the Beacon Journal study examined microdata covering more than five decades, from the 1950 census to the 2005 American Community Survey.
While the number of records was large 51 million the analysis was simple: After adjusting for inflation to 2006 dollars, the annual wages were sorted to determine the median, or midpoint earnings, for workers in five-year age groups and also by gender, race and level of education. Only those who reported working at least 40 weeks in the year were included.
Workers' earnings then were grouped by year of birth into four 20-year generations: GI Generation, born 1905-24; Depression kids, 1925-44; baby boomers, 1945-64; and Generation X, 1965-84.
Such detailed breakdowns are possible because of the huge number of records. And more records mean smaller error margins.
For example, the Beacon Journal study found that the median income in 2005 for women ages 30-34, with a four-year college degree, was $42,083. According to census researchers, the margin of error is $510, or 1.2 percent. In contrast, pre-election polls often have error margins of 3 percent or more.
Knox, a 58-year-old baby boomer, joined the staff of the Beacon Journal in 1991 and has been the newsroom's specialist in computer-assisted reporting since 1999. A Medina resident, he is a graduate of John Carroll University.
Wage and salary figures used in this project were produced by Beacon Journal reporter David Knox as part of a Kiplinger fellowship at Ohio State University's John Glenn School of Public Affairs.
The numbers were drawn from Census Bureau data prepared by the University of Minnesota's Population Center in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series.
Unlike the familiar census tables that add up people and households grouped by gender, race, income and numerous other categories, microdata are the answers given by individuals on the census ''long-form'' questionnaires, stripped of names, addresses and other information to prevent identification.
The advantage of microdata is that the raw records can be grouped in new ways.
To track how wages have changed over years for successive generations of workers, the Beacon Journal study examined microdata covering more than five decades, from the 1950 census to the 2005 American Community Survey.
While the number of records was large 51 million the analysis was simple: After adjusting for inflation to 2006 dollars, the annual wages were sorted to determine the median, or midpoint earnings, for workers in five-year age groups and also by gender, race and level of education. Only those who reported working at least 40 weeks in the year were included.
Workers' earnings then were grouped by year of birth into four 20-year generations: GI Generation, born 1905-24; Depression kids, 1925-44; baby boomers, 1945-64; and Generation X, 1965-84.
Such detailed breakdowns are possible because of the huge number of records. And more records mean smaller error margins.
For example, the Beacon Journal study found that the median income in 2005 for women ages 30-34, with a four-year college degree, was $42,083. According to census researchers, the margin of error is $510, or 1.2 percent. In contrast, pre-election polls often have error margins of 3 percent or more.
Knox, a 58-year-old baby boomer, joined the staff of the Beacon Journal in 1991 and has been the newsroom's specialist in computer-assisted reporting since 1999. A Medina resident, he is a graduate of John Carroll University.
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