For release 10:00 a.m. (EDT) Thursday, September 19, 2019                                           USDL-19-1650

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 2019

Retirement benefits were available to 91 percent of state and local government workers in March 2019, the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Retirement benefits include defined benefit and defined contribution
plans. Sixty-nine percent of state and local government workers in the lowest 10th percent wage category and 
95 percent of workers in the highest 10th percent wage category had access to retirement benefits.(See table 1.)

Seventy-seven percent of private industry workers had access to and participated in employer-provided retirement
benefits, referred to as the take-up rate. Retirement benefits were available to 31 percent of workers in the 
lowest 10th percent wage category and 88 percent of workers in the highest 10th percent wage category. (See 
table 1.) 

Civilian workers
  * The access rate to medical care benefits for full-time workers was 87 percent and the take-up rate was 74
percent. For part-time workers, access to medical care benefits was 22 percent and the take-up rate was 56 
percent. (See table 2.)
  * The share of premiums workers paid for family medical coverage was 33 percent and employers paid 67 percent.
In the Northeast the employee share was 26 percent and in the South it was 37 percent. (See table 4.)
  * Short-term disability insurance was available to 40 percent of workers and the take-up rate was 98 percent.
Long-term disability insurance was available to 34 percent of workers and the take-up rate was 96 percent. (See
table 16 of the additional benefits tables.)  

Private industry workers
  * For single coverage medical care, the share of premiums paid by workers was 21 percent and employers paid 79
percent. Seventy-three percent of workers made flat dollar contributions with a median monthly amount of
$122.33. Sixteen percent of workers had a variable premium. (See table 3, and tables 12 and 15 of the additional
benefits tables.)
  * The median flat dollar monthly employee contribution for family coverage medical care was $473.36. (See
table 15 of the additional benefits tables.)
  * Ninety-four percent of union workers had access to medical care benefits and 83 percent had access to life 
insurance. Eighty-two percent had access to both benefits. (See tables 2 and 5, and table 44 of the additional 
benefits tables.)
  * Wellness programs were available to 41 percent of workers. (See table 39 of the additional benefits tables.)

State and local government workers
  * Life insurance was available to 91 percent of full-time workers and 89 percent participated in the benefit. 
Twenty-four percent of part-time workers had access to life insurance benefits and 23 percent participated in 
the benefit. (See table 5.)
  * Sixty-one percent of workers had access to paid vacation days. After one year of service, 56 percent of
workers had between 10 and 14 days available and 17 percent of workers had between 15 and 19 days. (See table 6
and table 37 of the additional benefits tables.)
  * Fifty-seven percent of workers had access to defined benefit retirement survivor benefits for same-sex 
unmarried domestic partners and 56 percent of workers had access for opposite-sex unmarried domestic partners. 
(See table 43 of the additional benefits tables.) 

Additional benefit tables organized by ownership and type of benefit are available in the Employee Benefits 
in the United States, March 2019 publication, see www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2019/.
                 

                                               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. 

The Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2019 bulletin 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/ncs/ebs/benefits for the latest benefits publications. The bulletin includes the following tables:

-	Table 1: Establishments offering retirement and health care benefits (private industry only)
-	Tables 2–8: Retirement benefits 
-	Tables 9–15, 41, 44: Health care benefits
-	Tables 16–30: Insurance benefits 
-	Tables 31–38: Leave benefits
-	Table 39: Quality of life benefits
-	Tables 40–42: Financial benefits 
-	Table 43: Unmarried domestic partner benefits
-	Tables 3, 44, 45: Benefit combinations

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/ncs/ebs/nb_var.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. Administrative support and professional 
occupations (including teachers) account for two-thirds of the state and local government workforce, compared with
one-half of private industry.

Leave benefits for teachers: Primary, secondary, and special education teachers typically have a 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 plan premiums: The estimates for medical plan premiums are not based on actual decisions regarding medical
coverage made by employees; instead they are based on the assumption 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. The share of premiums paid by employers and employees include workers 
with and without a contribution requirements. 

Sample rotation: One-third of the private industry sample is rotated each year except in years when the government
sample is replaced. 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.


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 2019 wages and salaries from 
the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation publication.

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 article 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/ncs/ncspubs.htm. The latest 
glossary of benefit terms is available at 
www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/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/ncs/ebs/data.htm. 

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request.
Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.