Employee Benefits in the United States News Release

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, September 22, 2022                                             USDL-22-1893

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 2022
                        
                        
Life insurance was available to 57 percent of private industry workers in March 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor 
Statistics reported today. Among occupational groups, access to life insurance plans ranged from 27 percent of
workers in service occupations to 79 percent in management, professional, and related occupations. 
(See table 5.)

Forty-three percent of private industry workers had access to short-term disability insurance. These benefits 
were available to 34 percent of workers in the South census region and 67 percent of workers in the Northeast 
census region.

Thirty-five percent of private industry workers had access to long-term disability insurance. Among industry 
groups, access to long-term disability insurance ranged from 4 percent of workers in the leisure and hospitality
industry to 71 percent of workers in the information industry. 

Among state and local government employees, 83 percent of workers had access to life insurance, 27 percent had 
access to short-term disability insurance and 39 percent had access to long-term disability insurance. 

Wellness programs were available to 43 percent of private workers. At establishments with 500 or more employees,
employee assistance programs were available to 84 percent of workers. Access to childcare ranged from 5 percent
for establishments that employ less than 50 workers to 28 percent for establishments that employ 500 or
more workers.

Access to nonproduction bonuses was available to 37 percent of state and local government workers and ranged
from 15 percent of workers in the Mountain division to 61 percent in the New England division.

Four percent of private workers had access to student loan repayment benefits. Workers in the highest 10 percent
wage category had an access rate of 9 percent and workers in the lowest 10 percent had an access rate of 1 
percent. Seven percent of civilian workers in management, professional, and related occupations had access to
student loan repayment benefits.

Civilian workers
  * Access to healthcare benefits was available to 74 percent of workers, and 57 percent of workers participated
    in the benefit, resulting in a take-up rate of 78 percent.
  * End-of-year bonuses were available to 11 percent of workers. Among establishments with less than 100 workers,
    14 percent had access to end-of-year bonuses and 7 percent of workers in establishments with 100 or more
    workers had access.
  * Employee assistance programs were available to 72 percent of workers in the educational services industry
    and 63 percent of workers in the health care and social assistance industry.

Private industry workers
  * Access to medical care was available to 70 percent of workers. Among goods-producing industries, medical
    care was available to 75 percent of workers in the construction sector and 90 percent of workers in the
    manufacturing sector.
  * Access to flexible work schedules was available to 16 percent of nonunion workers and 4 percent of union
    workers.
  * Access to wellness programs was available to 68 percent of workers in the highest 10 percent wage category
    and 18 percent of workers in the lowest 10 percent wage category.

State and local government workers
  * Among census divisions, long-term disability was available to 15 percent of workers in the West South
    Central division and 63 percent of workers in the East North Central division.
  * Access to medical care benefits was available to 89 percent of workers. Ninety-nine percent of
    full-time workers had access and 24 percent of part-time workers had access.
  * Employee contributions for short-term disability were required for 12 percent of workers, including 19 
    percent of workers in service occupations and 7 percent of workers in natural resources, construction,
    and maintenance occupations.
    

                                              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 2022 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 March 2022 Excel tables present 2022 
estimates of the incidence and key provisions of employer-sponsored benefits for civilian workers, private 
industry workers, as well as state and local government workers by worker and establishment characteristics, and
geographic areas. Each Excel sheet includes the following tables:

-	Table 1: Retirement benefits
-	Table 2: Health benefits 
-	Table 3: Medical care benefits
-	Table 4: Life insurance benefits 
-	Table 5: Short-term disability benefits
-	Table 6: Long-term disability benefits
-	Table 7: Leave benefits 
-	Table 8: Other benefits

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 care premiums: The estimates for medical care 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.

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. As the sample is partially rotated each year and sample weights are 
updated for the reference period based on the Current Employment Statistics, the estimates are not considered a 
time-series.

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 2022 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.

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