Data Collection Steps
1. Download “Earnings Analysis Data Entry Worksheet” and Save as “YourLastName Earnings Analysis Data.” You will enter data in this worksheet. I have formatted the columns to present numbers consistently, you will need to enter the correct formulas to calculate occupational differences by gender.
2. Choose three occupations (possibly from your career assessment inventories or an occupation someone you know has). Find the comparable SOC classification code in the pdf file called Occupation Codes Used in the Census. If you cannot find an exact match for one of your occupations, look for occupations that appear similar or select a different occupation.
3. Download “Median weekly earnings by occupation and sex 2012.pdf” from ANGEL. Caution: the way data is entered in columns is not the same order as in the data entry worksheet. Carefully transfer the data from this document to your Excel worksheet. Enter the formulas to calculate. Be sure to correctly account for missing 1000s in employment figures. Any career with fewer than 50,000 employees (total, male, or female) will not have estimates of the median weekly earnings. In this case, you will need to select another occupation by picking one from those listed in the Median Weekly Earnings table. If you work this way, you will still need to find the SOC Code
4. Besides the Earnings by Sex worksheet, your earnings analysis has four worksheets for entering data on Earnings by Percentile, Top Industries, Top States, and Top Metropolitan Regions for your occupations. To collect this information for your occupation you will go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Home Page (www.bls.gov), under SUBJECT AREAS, select Wages by Area & Occupation. Select the link for National Wages for over 800 occupations. If you are having trouble click this link: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm
This will take you to the Occupational Employment Statistics current data (May 2012), click on the major occupational group for your first occupation. Use the SOC Code to find the occupation and click on the label. You will arrive at a data page with the most current estimates for the occupation. Fill in all the columns in each worksheet for each occupation.
5. Be sure to save and back up your data. You will need to import data from Excel into your final report.
The next stage is to produce an occupational earnings analysis report. See Earnings Analysis Project Instructions Part 2.
Earnings Analysis Project Instructions Part 2: The Write Up
Write a report analyzing earnings and opportunities in the three occupations from Part 1 of the assignment.
Due: Friday Oct. 9 by 11:59PM. Submit to the ANGEL Drop Box “Earning Analysis Report.”
Introduce the paper with a description of how you chose the three occupations to examine and the future prospects for these occupations based on the transformations of work under the new economy or other major trends affecting work.
In the paper, you will be examining “the rules of the game” that shape your three occupations as well as the opportunities for agency in each. First you will consider differences in each occupational field by gender. You should consider both the composition of each field and pay gap.
NOTE: An important component of grading this section is the correct description of your data. You need to correctly describe the data in terms of the year surveyed and population represented. You will also need to correctly use statistical terms like mean, median, and percentile. Your tables will be at the end of the report. Each should be numbered and referred to in the text, e.g. (See Table 1).
Choose the most interesting occupation in terms gender difference results and offer two plausible explanations based on course materials for differences in composition and/or earnings by gender. Be sure to explain the hypothetical process for each explanation that gender composition and earnings gaps emerge. If any of your occupations has little or no gap, what can explain the absence of a gender gap in a society where gender earnings gaps are so common? You will not have the data to support or prove either explanation. You are generating hypotheses for mechanisms of inequality in this concrete case.
For each occupation, discuss the distribution of earnings in terms of highest and lowest earnings. How large is the difference, what are two variables that could explain this distribution. Discuss the industries and geographical data in terms of places to look for work in these occupations and where the pay is highest. Choose one occupation and consider one variable (industry, state, or metro region) that most interests you and generate a plausible explanations for the variation in job concentration, number of jobs compared to highest pay. For example, why are most accountants employed in tax preparation, accounting, and bookkeeping, but the top paying accounting positions are in the federal government?
Choose an occupation that most interests you and one or two metropolitan areas you would most like to live in. Follow the links from: http://bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm to the Wage Data by Occupation for 375 Metropolitan Areas. Summarize your findings.
Conclude your paper by discussing your own “dream” or career values/anchors and how this earnings report shapes your planning or decision process.
Turn your tables into well-formatted tables and include them at the end of the report. This should be saved as a single word document for submission to ANGEL.
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