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Retiring old ideas about retirement
Social Security more solvent than most Americans realize
Focus group participants discuss retirement
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Insurance misery has no easy cure
Health-care matchup finds Ohio falls short
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Friday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
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Akron Zips:
Opponent outlook: Kent State
Browns Bulletin:
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Tribe Matters:
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Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth test showed marijuana
Kent State Sports:
Men's Basketball Scheduling update
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Andy’s Signed According to ESPN
All Da King's Men:
Baby Got Barack !
Blog of Mass Destruction:
As California Goes?
Akron Law Café:
Why do public officials violate Ohio Ethics Laws?
Varsity Letters:
Report: Ontko selects Wisconsin
See Jane Style:
Oh Baby!
Car Chase:
Where do We Go from Here?
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Closings….Not the Good Kind!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Margy inquires-when is a Taste of Hudson?
Sound Check:
LeVert II live performance Saturday night — "Dedication" album due July 13,
HRLite House:
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Akron Gamer:
Video game sales drop in May
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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