Changes in the Income Distribution in Agriculture

Abstract

THE purpose of this paper is to examine available information on the distribution of income in U.S. agriculture and changes in this distribution over time. Two important questions arise immediately: (1) Given the extreme heterogeneity of the population associated with agriculture, what are the relevant subgroups that should be studied? (2) What income concept should be employed? The answer to each of these questions for purposes of this study was dictated almost entirely by data availability. Current Population Survey (CPS) data published by the Bureau of the Census are used extensively to examine the distribution of income within the group designated farmer and farm-manager families. Comparisons are made with the group designated farm-laborer and foreman families and also with the residence group identified as rural farm families. The report on the matching of data in the 1960 Sample Survey of Agriculture and the 1960 Censuses of Population and Housing is a second source of information for which comparisons are made. These data relate to farm-operator families. In this paper, then, four subgroups of the population associated with agriculture are discussed. Two of these groups are mutually exclusive: the farmer and farm-manager group and the farm-laborer and foreman group. The third group, rural farm families, is composed of most members of the farmer-and-farm-manager group, a large part of the farm-laborer-andforeman group and in addition a group of part-time farmers whose primary occupation is something other than farming. The fourth group, farm-operator families, is substantially the same as rural farm families, particularly since 1959. However, there are important differences so that these groups cannot be regarded as identical. Throughout this paper the income concept used is total family money income. Total money income includes wages and salaries, net self-employment income, and income from rent, interest, social security payments, et cetera. Total family money income is simply the sum of total money income received by all members of a family.