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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:
Establishments | Civilian | Private industry | State and local governments |
---|---|---|---|
Total in sampling frame(2) |
6,927,610 | 6,697,060 | 230,550 |
Total in sample |
14,720 | 13,130 | 1,600 |
Responding(3) |
8,870 | 7,450 | 1,430 |
Refused(4) |
4,750 | 4,610 | 140 |
Out of business or not in survey scope |
1,100 | 1,070 | 30 |
Footnotes: |
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Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey. |
Survey scope:
Occupational group(2) | Civilian workers | Private industry workers | State and local government workers |
---|---|---|---|
All workers |
139,921,100 | 121,010,600 | 18,910,600 |
Management, professional, and related |
44,937,400 | 34,109,600 | 10,827,800 |
Management, business, and financial |
13,713,500 | 12,204,600 | - |
Professional and related |
31,224,000 | 21,905,100 | 9,318,900 |
Teachers |
6,864,200 | - | 5,066,600 |
Primary, secondary, and special education school teachers |
4,778,000 | - | 3,862,900 |
Registered nurses |
2,851,400 | - | - |
Service |
30,447,300 | 26,549,400 | 3,897,900 |
Protective service |
3,383,200 | 1,480,300 | 1,902,900 |
Sales and office |
33,461,300 | 30,823,200 | 2,638,100 |
Sales and related |
13,126,700 | 13,050,000 | - |
Office and administrative support |
20,334,600 | 17,773,200 | 2,561,400 |
Natural resources, construction, and maintenance |
11,312,700 | 10,517,000 | 795,700 |
Construction, extraction, farming, fishing, and forestry |
5,787,100 | 5,354,000 | - |
Installation, maintenance, and repair |
5,525,600 | 5,162,900 | - |
Production, transportation, and material moving |
19,762,400 | 19,011,300 | 751,100 |
Production |
8,928,600 | 8,808,800 | - |
Transportation and material moving |
10,833,800 | 10,202,600 | - |
Footnotes: |
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Note: Because of rounding, sums of individual items may not equal totals. Dashes indicate that no estimates
for this characteristic are provided in this publication. |
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:
Ownership | Average hourly wage percentiles | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 | 25 | 50 | 75 | 90 | |
(median) | |||||
Civilian |
$13.09 | $16.21 | $22.36 | $35.29 | $53.52 |
Private industry |
$13.00 | $16.00 | $21.50 | $33.77 | $52.88 |
State and local government |
$15.42 | $20.23 | $30.11 | $42.30 | $57.69 |
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. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.