Adjusted after-tax income for economic families and persons not in economic families

Part A - Plain language definition:

Not applicable

Part B - Detailed definition:

Refers to economic family after-tax income that has been adjusted by a factor that accounts for family composition and size. The adjustment factor takes into account the lower relative needs of additional family members, as compared to a single person living alone, and is determined by using a scale that assigns a lower value to additional family members. The adjusted after-tax family income is then computed by dividing the family's after-tax income by the sum of the factors. Multiple equivalence scales are used in published data. The one chosen for use with the census income data assigns the following factors:

1. the oldest person in the family receives a factor of 1.0
2. the second oldest person in the family receives a factor of 0.4
3. all other family members aged 16 and over receive a factor of 0.4, and
4. all other family members under age 16 receive a factor of 0.3.

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