Maryland Unemployment Insurance (UI) Wage Records
Quarterly wage data of employees, collected by employers and submitted to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
Approximately 90% of all workers in Maryland. Excluded are those who are self-employed, private contractors, federal employees, employees of religious organizations, and individuals who are not U.S. citizens.
Access
De-identified Maryland Unemployment Insurance Wage Records (MDUI) data at the individual level are only available for federal evaluations. The Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation (DLLR) owns the data and acts as the official agency for these administrative records. As such, any use of it requires their initial permission. The Jacob France Institute (JFI) at the University of Baltimore acts as an agent to archive the records and will work with institutions to perform research analyses using MDUI data. The research institution would receive aggregate results. JFI would then de-identify the data and provide individual records to an agreed upon third party evaluator.
External researchers working on a federal evaluation and interested in accessing de-identified MDUI data at the individual level or in receiving the results of a particular analysis of the data should contact JFI directly. JFI will then request permission from DLLR. If the request is approved by DLLR, the researcher or requesting institution will then be directed to JFI to carry out the research request and link external data sets.
JFI also has data access to adjacent states (DC, NJ, and OH).
Timeline for Access
Unknown.
Lag Time
Records are updated quarterly on approximately a four- to six-month lag.
Cost
JFI charges a fee that is dependent upon the amount of work requested.
Linking
This data set is linked with external data sets using the individual’s Social Security number, contingent on DLLR’s permission to use the data for a specific project. Individual employers and employee records cannot be identified due to confidentiality. JFI will carry out matching and send the aggregate data back to the researcher.
Data Contents
Partial List of Variables
Total wages paid for a quarter, employer account number as assigned by the State of Maryland and reporting period.
Note that individuals can have multiple employers within a single reference year/quarter. There are no full-time or part-time designations, nor are hourly rates available; however, a proxy of full-time employment can be created using the current minimum wage calculated over 40 hours per week as a threshold.
J-PAL Randomized Evaluations Using this Data Set
Sanbonmatsu, Lisa, Lawrence F. Katz, Jeffrey B. Liebman, and Jeffrey R. Kling. 2011."Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Program: Interim Impacts Evaluation." Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.