Justification for addition of RIP Question

Request for Non-Substantive Change

The U.S. Census Bureau requests a revision to the previously approved basic demographic information of the Current Population Survey (CPS) starting in January 2008. The data collection was previously approved by OMB on June 8, 2005 (OMB#0607-0049, expires 6/30/2008). The revision consists of one additional question asked of the household respondent, regarding whether in future interviews if other household members can verify data originally provided by the respondent. This is in response to the Respondent Identification Policy (RIP) required by the U.S. Census Bureau. The additional question appears in the attachment.

The goal of the Census Bureau’s Respondent Identification Policy is to extend confidentiality protections so that they apply to members of a respondent’s own household. The Current Population Survey updates demographic and labor force data each month by providing previous responses to several questions. The data collected in the RIP question will be used by the instrument to determine how to collect data in the following month. If the respondent answers “NO, you cannot share the data I have provided with other household members”, and the respondent is unavailable the following month, the instrument will not collect data using the previous answers as a memory prompt.

Since the CPS is a proxy interview and verifies both demographic and labor force data for household members 15 years old and over, the RIP question will be asked after the first labor force interview is completed by the household respondent. The question is only asked during the first interview.

Attachment

Attachment

RIP Question

We will recontact this household next month to update this information. If we are unable to reach you and we talk to someone else instead, is it OK if we refer to some of the information you gave us?

1 - Yes

2 - No

Note: The RIP question above has gone through substantial testing. Respondent comprehension has increased with each round of testing. Testing continues, consequently, there may be slight modifications to the wording before going into the field.