Employee Benefits in the United States News Release

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, September 21, 2023                                             USDL-23-2024

Technical information:  (202) 691-6199  *  ncsinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/ebs
Media contact:          (202) 691-5902  *  pressoffice@bls.gov

                        EMPLOYEE BENEFITS IN THE UNITED STATES – MARCH 2023
                        
                        
Retirement benefits were available to 94 percent of private industry union workers and 68 percent of private 
industry nonunion workers in March 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Sixty-six percent 
of private industry union workers had access to defined benefit plans and 63 percent had access to defined 
contribution plans. Ten percent of private industry nonunion workers had access to defined benefit plans and 
68 percent had access to defined contribution plans. (See table 1.)

Among private industry workers, paid sick leave was available to 86 percent of union workers and 77 percent of 
nonunion workers while paid family leave was available to 23 percent of union workers and 27 percent of nonunion 
workers. Ninety-two percent of union workers had access to paid holidays and 56 percent had access to paid 
personal leave, while 79 percent of nonunion workers had access to paid holidays and 45 percent had access to 
paid personal leave. (See table 6.)

Ninety-six percent of private industry union workers and 69 percent of private industry nonunion workers had 
access to medical care benefits. Among private industry union workers, employer share of premiums was 80 percent
for single coverage and 79 percent for family coverage. Among private industry nonunion workers, employer share
of premiums was 78 percent for single coverage and 65 percent for family coverage. (See tables 2, 3, and 4.)

Eighty-six percent of private industry union workers had access to life insurance plans, 73 percent had access 
to short-term disability plans, and 44 percent had access to long-term disability plans. Fifty-five percent of 
private industry nonunion workers had access to life insurance plans, 41 percent had access to short-term 
disability plans, and 35 percent had access to long-term disability plans. (See table 5.)

Among quality of life benefits in the private industry, 4 percent of union workers had access to a flexible work
schedule, 1 percent had access to a flexible workplace, and 75 percent had access to employee assistance 
programs. Seventeen percent of nonunion workers had access to a flexible work schedule, 10 percent had access to
a flexible workplace, and 52 percent had access to employee assistance programs. 

Highlights of employer-sponsored benefits

Occupational group
  * Access to nonproduction bonuses ranged from 30 percent for service occupations to 54 percent for 
    management, professional, and related occupations among private industry workers.
  * Six percent of state and local government teachers had access to subsidized commuting and 12 percent had 
    access to childcare assistance.

Work status
  * Eighty-seven percent of full-time private industry workers had access to medical care benefits and 25 
    percent of part-time workers had access to medical care benefits. The take-up rate was 65 percent for 
    full-time workers and 54 percent for part-time workers.
  * Twelve percent of full-time private industry workers had access to a flexible workplace and 17 percent had 
    access to a flexible work schedule, while 2 percent of part-time workers had access to a 
    flexible workplace and 13 percent had access to a flexible work schedule.

Average wage category
  * Access to student loan repayment assistance ranged from 2 percent for the lowest 10th average wage category
    to 11 percent for the highest 10th average wage category among private industry workers. 
  * Access to healthcare flexible spending accounts for private industry workers ranged from 22 percent for the 
    lowest 25th average wage category to 70 percent for the highest 25th average wage category.

Industry group
  * Access to paid family leave for private industry workers ranged from 8 percent for the leisure and 
    hospitality industry to 55 percent for the information industry.
  * Employers paid 88 percent of premiums for single coverage and 78 percent for family coverage among state and 
    local government workers with medical care plans in public administration. The average flat monthly premium 
    paid by employers was $676.71 for single coverage and $1,547.50 for family coverage.

Establishment size
  * Access to wellness programs in the private industry ranged from 23 percent for establishments with less than
    50 workers to 76 percent for establishments with 500 workers or more.
  * The average number of paid vacation days by service requirement for private industry workers after 1 year 
    ranged from 10 days for establishments with less than 100 workers to 14 days for establishments with 500 or
    more workers. After 20 years, the average number of paid vacation days ranged from 17 days for 
    establishments with less than 100 workers to 24 days for establishments with more than 500 workers.

Census area
  * Life insurance access among state and local government workers by census area ranged from 80 percent in the
    West census area to 85 percent in the South census area. The take-up rate was 100 percent for West census 
    area workers and 97 percent for South census area workers.
  * Access to short-term disability plans was available to 33 percent of civilian workers in the South census 
    area with a participation rate of 32 percent. Sixty-six percent of civilian workers in the Northeast had 
    access with a participation rate of 65 percent.
  

                                              TECHNICAL NOTE

Estimates in this release are from the National Compensation Survey (NCS), conducted by the U.S. Department of
Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The NCS provides comprehensive measures of compensation cost levels and
trends and also provides benefits incidence estimates on the percentage of workers with access to and
participating in employer-provided benefit plans.

Employee Benefits data: The Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2023 includes additional details on 
the coverage, costs, and provisions of employer-sponsored benefits, and will be published shortly after this 
news release. See www.bls.gov/ebs/publications/annual-benefits-summary.htm for the latest benefits publications. 
Historical estimates are also accessible in Excel format at 
www.bls.gov/ebs/publications/xlsx/employee-benefits-in-the-united-states-dataset.xlsx and through the database 
query tool at www.bls.gov/ebs/data.htm.  

Standard errors: Measures of reliability are available for published estimates, which provide users a measure of 
the precision of an estimate to ensure that it is within an acceptable range for their intended purpose. For 
further information see www.bls.gov/ebs/technical-notes/standard-errors.htm.

Comparing private and public sector data: Incidence of employee benefits in state and local government should not
be directly compared to private industry. Differences between these sectors stem from factors such as variation 
in work activities and occupational structures. Manufacturing and sales, for example, make up a large part of 
private industry work activities but are rare in state and local government.

Civilian workers: Statistics for private industry and state and local government are published separately and 
then combined to measure the civilian economy. Excluded from the civilian economy are workers employed in 
federal government and quasi-federal agencies, military personnel, agricultural workers, volunteers, unpaid 
workers, individuals receiving long-term disability compensation, and those working overseas. In addition, 
private industry excludes workers in private households, the self-employed, workers who set their own pay (e.g., 
proprietors, owners, major stockholders, and partners in unincorporated firms), and family members paid token 
wages.

Leave benefits for teachers: Primary, secondary, and special education teachers typically have a contracted work 
schedule of 37 or 38 weeks per year. Because of this work schedule, they are generally not offered vacations or 
holidays. In many cases, the time off during winter and spring breaks during the school year are not considered 
vacation days for the purposes of this survey.

Medical care premiums: The estimates for medical care premiums are not based on actual decisions regarding medical
coverage made by employees; instead, it is assumed that all employees in the occupation can opt for single or 
family coverage. Monthly premiums are collected when possible. Annual premiums are converted to monthly premiums 
by dividing by 12 months.

Sample rotation: One-third of the private industry sample had been rotated each year except in years when the 
government sample was replaced. Beginning with the March 2022 publication, however, an additional (fourth) private 
industry sample is used in estimation to mitigate the impact of decreasing response rates. The government sample is 
replaced less frequently than the private industry sample. The state and local government sample was replaced in its 
entirety for the March 2017 reference period.

Classification system: The National Compensation Survey publishes estimates of compensation costs
and trends as well as benefit coverage by ownership, industry group, occupational group, and geographic areas, see 
www.bls.gov/eci/factsheets/national-compensation-survey-classification-systems-mapping-files.htm.


Sample size:

Survey scope:

Average hourly wage percentiles: Estimates by worker average wage are grouped into six wage categories- the lowest
10 percent, the lowest 25 percent, the second 25 percent, the third 25 percent, the highest 25 percent, and the
highest 10 percent. The categories use percentile values based on unpublished March 2023 wages and salaries from
the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation publication at www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecec_06162023.pdf.

The percentiles are computed using hourly wages and salaries along with scheduled hours of work reported for 
individual workers in sampled establishments. Establishments in the survey are asked to report only individual 
worker wages and salaries for each sampled job. For the calculation of the percentile values, the individual
worker hourly wages and salaries are weighted and arrayed from lowest to highest. The values corresponding to the
percentiles are:

The lowest 10- and 25-percent wage categories include those occupations with an average hourly rate less than the
10th percentile value and 25th percentile value, respectively. The second 25-percent category includes those 
occupations with rates at or above the 25th percentile value but less than the 50th percentile value. The third
25-percent category includes those occupations with rates at or above the 50th percentile value but less than the
75th percentile value. Finally, the highest 25- and 10-percent wage categories include those occupations with an
average hourly wage greater than or equal to the 75th percentile value and 90th percentile value, respectively.

Individual workers can fall into a wage category different from the average for the occupation into which they are
classified because average hourly wages for the occupation are used to produce the benefit estimates.

Obtaining information: For articles on employee benefits, see the Monthly Labor Review benefits section at 
www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/subject/b.htm and Beyond the Numbers: Pay and Benefits at
www.bls.gov/opub/btn/archive/home.htm. The Economics Daily articles archive is available at
www.bls.gov/opub/ted/employee-benefits-survey.htm. For technical information, see "National Compensation 
Measures," in the BLS Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/ncs/home.htm.

Benefit publications from 1980 to the present are also available at
www.bls.gov/ebs/publications/annual-benefits-summary.htm. The latest glossary of benefit terms is available at 
www.bls.gov/ebs/publications/national-compensation-survey-glossary-of-employee-benefit-terms.htm. In addition,
the public databases may also be used to obtain data from 1985 to 2006 and 2010 to the present, see
www.bls.gov/ebs/data.htm.

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