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Job Income

We’re asking this question to find out how much money the people in your home get from their jobs. If you don’t know the exact answer to these money questions, give the best answer you can. Keep in mind giving us more accurate information allows us to give you more accurate answers..

The most important thing to keep in mind is that we need to know the amount each person earns before any taxes or other deductions are taken out of their paycheck. This amount is called "gross pay". You can be sure to tell us the right gross amount by telling us their hourly wage, their annual salary, or by looking on their pay stub for the gross amount they earn each month or pay period.

We’ve given each person four lines in case the person works at more than one job or more than one business. Just use as many as you need and leave the rest blank. To answer the questions:

1. First, choose the kind of wage or salary:

• If you are paid by the hour, choose "hourly".
• If you have an annual salary (even if you get paid more often), choose "yearly".
• If you are paid by the week, choose "weekly".
• If you don’t know your hourly rate and you get paid every two weeks, choose "every two weeks".
• If you don’t know your hourly rate and you get paid monthly, choose "monthly".

2. Tell us the amount you get paid for the type of wage you chose:

• If you are paid by the hour, tell us your hourly rate. For example: Jane earns $6.75 per hour, so she would type 6.75 into the box.
• If you get paid weekly, every two weeks, or monthly, tell us the amount you earn in that time period – again, making sure you tell us the amount you earn before anything is taken out of your paycheck.
  For example, Mark earns $1,500 per month but his take-home pay is only $1,200 per month. He should type 1500 into the box.
• If you have a job or type of self-employment in which you don’t get paid on a regular basis, make your best guess at how much you will earn this month after you take out business expenses but before taxes or anything else is taken out of your paycheck. Choose "monthly" and enter that amount in the box.
• If you chose yearly, tell us what your annual salary is. For example, Tim has an annual salary of $20,000/year, so he would type 20000 into the box.

3. If you chose hourly, tell us how many hours you work each week:

• For example, Jane works 20 hours a week at $6.75 per hour, so she should type 20 into the box for number of hours.
• If you chose something other than "hourly", you won’t be able to type in the number of hours you work each week.

    A few notes for people who are self-employed:

• If you have more than one kind of business, use different job lines to tell us about each business.
• If you expect your income this year to be similar to the income you had last year, the best thing to do is choose "yearly" and enter the amount of income (after business expenses) that you reported on your federal tax return last year.
• If you expect your income this year to be a lot different from last year’s income, choose "monthly" and estimate the amount you expect to earn this month.
• No matter how you report your self-employment income, enter the amount of income you will earn after subtracting business expenses but before taking out taxes, social security or other deductions.