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Overview of BLS Statistics on Pay and Benefits
BLS has 12 surveys or programs that provide information on pay and benefits. Choosing the data source that is right for your needs can be a challenge. We have an interactive tool to help you compare the features of each source.
BLS data on pay and benefits are available for occupations, industries, geographic areas, and the demographic characteristics of workers. See our short video about "The Many Ways We Measure Pay."
Here is an overview of some of our data sources:
National Compensation Survey–Benefits provides information on the share of workers who participate in specified benefits, such as health insurance, retirement plans, and paid vacations. These data also show the details of those benefits, such as deductible amounts, retirement ages, and amounts of paid leave.
The Employment Cost Index (ECI) measures the change in the hourly labor cost to employers over time, based on a quarterly survey of employers. The ECI uses a fixed “basket” of labor to produce a pure cost change, free from the effects of workers moving between occupations and industries and includes both the cost of wages and salaries and the cost of benefits.
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) measures the average employer cost per employee hour worked for total compensation, wages and salaries, and benefits, and costs as a percent of total compensation, based on a quarterly survey of employers. These data are collected through the National Compensation Survey (NCS) and provide information about average compensation in the economy at a point in time.
Employer costs are available for different benefits, including paid leave—vacation, holiday, sick, and personal leave; supplemental pay—overtime and premium, shift differentials, and nonproduction bonuses; insurance—life, health, short-term and long-term disability; retirement and savings—defined benefit and defined contribution; and legally required benefits—Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation.
Wage data are available by occupation for the nation, regions, states, and many metropolitan areas. Wage data by area and occupation are from the National Compensation Survey, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, and Current Population Survey.
Earnings data are available by demographic characteristics such as age, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. See also Earnings by education.
The Current Employment Statistics survey is a monthly survey of the payroll records of business establishments. The survey provides national estimates of average weekly hours and average hourly and weekly earnings for all employees and production and nonsupervisory employees in the private sector. State and metropolitan area estimates of hours and earnings are also available.
Geographic Information from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
Annual and quarterly wage data are available by detailed industry for the nation, states, counties, and many metropolitan areas.
Hourly Compensation and Unit Labor Costs
The Productivity program has data on hourly compensation and unit labor costs. Data are available quarterly for major sectors and annually for detailed industries.
Modeled wage estimates provide average hourly wages for occupations and for selected job characteristics and geographic areas. The modeled wage estimates are produced using a statistical procedure that combines survey data collected by the National Compensation Survey and the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programs.
Compensation Research and Program Development Group
The Compensation Research and Program Development Group conducts research on methods, concepts, and technical issues of measuring pay and benefits in BLS surveys.
We publish an annual report and data files on workers with hourly earnings at or below the prevailing Federal minimum wage.
What BLS Does Not Have
BLS does not publish detailed information on household income, which includes wages and salaries, and also interest, dividends, pensions, and income from other sources. Information on household income is available from the U.S. Census Bureau.
BLS Overviews
Business Costs | Demographic Data | Employment | Geography | Industry | Inflation and Prices | International Data and Technical Cooperation | Occupation | Pay and Benefits | Productivity | Research Programs | Spending and Time Use | Unemployment | Wages by Area and Occupation | Women Workers | Worker Safety and Health
Last Modified Date: October 31, 2024
