October 29, 2019
Non-substantive Change Request Ag Labor Survey
0535-0109
NASS is requesting two non-substantive changes to the quarterly Ag Labor surveys. After base and overtime wages were added to the questionnaire last year, it was recommended that the questionnaires include two additional columns to the primary data collection tables to more accurately calculate the wage rates. Previously, NASS asked for Total Hours Worked during the reference period. NASS will continue to ask that question with two additional columns for Total Base Hours and Total Overtime Hours. These new questions were evaluated using cognitive interviewing and no major issues were found.
The second change is an addition of an instruction sheet that includes revised and new definitions and instructions to provide clarification for constructs and questions that respondents were found to have comprehension issues with across numerous cognitive testing studies. The decision to place these definitions and instructions in a separate sheet was made to improve usability of the questionnaire and to align with BLS’ Occupational Employment Report.
There are no changes to the sample size or respondent burden as a result of these two changes. The addition of base and overtime hours appeared to help respondents comprehend gross and base wages in cognitive testing and we anticipate it will add minimal burden. The instruction sheet was designed to clarify constructs and questions and improve the usability of the form. There was no evidence from cognitive testing to suggest the addition of this sheet will add additional burden.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Hancock, David - NASS |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-08-03 |