AbstractThe decisions of farm wives to work off the farm and the earnings they make in that off‐farm employment should be considered simultaneously. Previous studies of wives' off‐farm earnings have included only employed wives in their analyses of the factors affecting earnings, which results in biased estimates. This study tests, via Tobit analysis, a model which includes all farm wives and examines the effects of wives' human capital, farm and family constraints, and labor market characteristics on both their off‐farm employment decisions and their earnings. Wives' off‐farm earnings are found to be related to wives' education, labor market experience, presence of children, other family income, farm size, and debt/income ratio. Changes in these factors have a greater influence on the labor market participation decisions of farm wives than on the variation in their earnings, once e