This paper summarizes a set of adjustments made to raw earnings data from the Current Population Survey's Outgoing Rotation Group in order to produce a consistent series of hourly earnings for the period 1979-2002. These adjustments include: adjusting for changes in the topcoding of weekly earnings; trimming outliers; including overtime, tips, and commissions for" hourly workers"; and adjusting for the" hours vary" response to the" usual weekly hours", instituted in 1994. The paper concludes that, for the period 1979-2002, the most consistent and robust hourly wage series:(1) uses a log-normal imputation to adjust for top-coding;(2) excludes data below $1 and above $100 per hour (in constant 2002 dollars);(3) excludes overtime, tip, and commission earnings for hourly paid workers; and (4) uses a simple procedure to impute usual weekly hours for those who report their" hours vary" after 1994. For the period 1994-2002, the best hourly wage series follows the same procedure, but includes overtime, tips, and commissions for workers that report their earnings by the hour. Both these preferred series (as well as several variations) appear in the Washington-DC-based Center for Economic and Policy Research's Uniform Data Files for the Outgoing Rotation Group and are available through www. cepr. net.