Did people in different income brackets focus on different contribution categories?
In every income bracket, cash contributions to “church, religious organizations” were highest, whether measured in dollars or as a portion of after-tax income. Can the Consumer Expenditure Survey data be compared across income brackets? One analysis that may be of interest is a comparison of cash contribution among different income brackets. However, it should be noted that CE Survey lower income brackets, which for purposes of this analysis would range from $5,000 through $29,999, report higher expenses than income. The CE survey observes: Data users may notice that average annual expenditures presented in the income tables sometimes exceed income before taxes for the lower income groups. The primary reason for that is believed to be the underreporting of income by respondents, a problem common to most household surveys… There are other reasons why expenditures exceed income for the lower income groups. Consumer units whose members experience a spell of unemployment may draw on their
