The Postsecondary Value Commission, in its exploration of return on investment and value of a higher education, desired to better understand the current state of earnings data for states and institutions so that they could effectively measure and understand post-college employment and earnings. To that end, this brief includes a review of research on how different state systems define and measure earners and earnings and a scan of private data sources, outside of government administrative data collections, available to institutions for use and purchase. This research was used to inform the development of the threshold methodology for earners and the commission's understanding of whether institutions can apply this work in the absence of state and federal administrative data.