National Compensation Survey

Employee Benefits in the United States

July 11, 2012
Medical care benefits were available to 57 percent of private industry workers in establishments with fewer than 100 employees compared to 89 percent of workers in establishments with 500 or more workers in March 2012. More...
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Employment Cost Index (ECI)

April 30, 2013
Compensation costs up 0.3 percent for civilian workers, seasonally adjusted, from December 2012-March 2013. Over the year, compensation rose 1.8 percent, wages and salaries 1.6 percent, and benefits 1.9 percent. More...
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Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC)

March 12, 2013
Private industry employers spent an average of $28.89 per hour worked for employee compensation in December 2012. Private industry costs averaged $1.98 per hour worked for paid leave benefits and $2.37 for legally required benefits. More...
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Archived NCS News Releases

• ECI Archives - Complete set of ECI news releases from 1976.
• ECEC Archives - Complete set of ECEC news releases from 1986.
• Employee Benefits—latest benefit news releases.
  • Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2011 (TXT) (PDF)
  • Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2010 (TXT) (PDF)
  • Health Plan Provision in State and Local Government in the United States, 2011 (PDF)
  • Employee Benefits in State and Local Government, September 2007 (HTML) (PDF)
• Subscribe to the BLS News Service—receive the Employment Cost Index news release and other major economic indicators by e-mail.
• NCS Regional News Releases
• ECI Regional News Releases

Databases

Database Name	Special Notice	Top Picks	One Screen	Multi- Screen	Tables	Text Files
Pay & Cost of Benefits
Employment Cost Index
Employer Cost for Employee Compensation
Benefit Incidence & Provisions
Employee Benefits Survey (1985 to 2006)
National Compensation Survey - Benefits (Beginning with 2010 data)*
*2007 to 2009 benefits data are not available in the National Compensation Survey data base. For data during these years, see the NCS publication archive.
Pay (Archived)
National Compensation Survey

More Tools

• Series Report —Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.

• Flat files (FTP) —For those who want it all. Download a flat file of the entire database or large subset of the database.
  • Wages (NCS)
  • Employment Cost Trends (ECT)
  • Benefits (EBS)

• National Compensation Search--allows you to search through all the National Compensation Survey publications that are currently available electronically.

All NCS Databases »

• ECI Current-Dollar Historical Listings
  • Updated NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF)
  • SIC basis (TXT) (PDF)
• ECI Constant-Dollar Historical Listings
  • Updated NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF)
  • SIC basis (TXT) (PDF)

• EBS Standard Errors

• ECEC Historical Listing, 2004 to present (Quarterly)-Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (TXT) (PDF) -- Quarterly estimates from March 2004 to the present, with sample establishments classified by industry categories based on the new 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the 2000 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.

All NCS Tables »

Employment Cost Trends

• Indexes (ECI), 1975-99
• Cost levels (ECEC), 1986-99
• ECT Archives

Benefits

• Recent retirement benefits data
• Recent health benefits data
• EBS Archives

Wages

• OCS Archives

Other Documents

• OCWC Customer Service Guide
• Glossary of Compensation Terms
• Glossary of Employee Benefit Terms
• Handbook of Methods, Chapter 8, National Compensation Measures
• Occupation Classification Manual
• Health Insurance Definitions
• Online Publication
• Compensation and Working Condition (CWC) Online
• Monthly Labor Review (MLR) Online

All NCS Publications (including benefits, compensation costs, and wages) »

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the NCS?
2. What is the status of Locality Pay Surveys (LPS)?
3. What is the role of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Federal pay administration process?
4. How can an aggregate ECI series be lower, or higher, than all of its component series? For example, the 3-month seasonally adjusted percent change for compensation, civilian workers in March 2012, was 0.4 percent. However, the change for its two components-wages and salaries and benefits-are both 0.5 percent.

Links to Other NCS Products:

1. NCS wage data? www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/
2. Data on compensation costs or employment cost trends? www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/
3. Benefit data? www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/
4. Work stoppages? www.bls.gov/wsp/

All NCS FAQs »

None

Related Links to Other BLS Programs

• Employment Cost Trends—quarterly indexes measuring change over time in labor costs and quarterly data measuring level of average costs per hour worked.
• Benefits—comprehensive data on incidence and provisions of selected employee benefit plans.
• Occupational Employment Statistics—data on employment and wages for over 800 occupations and for about 400 nonfarm industries for the nation, plus occupational data for States and metropolitan areas.
• Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages —comprehensive employment and wage data by industry and geographic area for workers covered by State Unemployment Insurance laws.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook—provides data for 250 occupations, by nature of the work, working conditions, employment, job outlook and earnings, related occupations, sources of additional information, and training, other qualifications, and advancement.
• Major Work Stoppages—provides monthly and annual data and analysis of major work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers.

Other Useful Links

• Wage and Hour Division (WHD)—responsible for enforcing federal labor laws including minimum wage and hour standards.
• Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)—responsible for ensuring employers doing business with the federal government comply with the laws and regulations requiring equal employment opportunity.
• Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)—offers a detailed description of private- and public-sector employee benefit programs as they exist today.
• Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)—provides participant and compliance assistance in the areas of retirement, health and other employee benefits.

Contacts

The Office of Compensation Levels and Trends, Branch of Survey Information and Publications, will be glad to assist you with questions about any of the components of the National Compensation Survey.

Email: Contact us

Telephone: (202) 691-6199 (Monday - Friday, 8:30 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.)

Question-by-FAX: (202) 691-6647

Information and assistance is also available from any BLS regional office.

Information voice phone: (202) 691-5200 The Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339

Write or Personal Visit

Federal Depository Libraries provide free access to government documents. Many of these libraries receive BLS publications. Check with a location near you.