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Handbook of Methods > Employer Costs for Employee Compensation

Handbook of Methods Employer Costs for Employee Compensation History

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation: History

The National Compensation Survey (NCS), introduced in 1996 as COMP2000, collects a broad range of compensation data that was formerly collected under three separate U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) programs. Until 2011, the NCS published employee compensation data for about 800 detailed occupations in more than 150 local areas. With the enactment of the 2011 U.S. federal budget, the Locality Pay Survey (LPS) portion of the NCS was eliminated.

Introduced 11 years after the Employment Cost Index (ECI), Employer Cost for Employee Compensation (ECEC) data was first published in tandem with the ECI and, like the ECI, has since become a part of the NCS. Improvements to the ECEC and the NCS have expanded ECEC data coverage and improved its methodology.

Hover over the red dot to see historical information.

Major ECEC milestones

• 1938–39: Industry Wage Surveys are conducted in support of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

• 1945: Industry Wage Survey (IWS) is reintroduced and conducted until 1991.

• 1960: National Survey of Professional, Administrative, Technical and Clerical Pay (PATC) is introduced and conducted until 1991.

• Mid-1960s: Area Wage Survey (AWS) is introduced and conducted until 1991. It is a direct ancestor of NCS.

• 1967: Service Contract Act Survey (SCA) is introduced and conducted until 1997.

• 1977: Level of Benefits Survey (LOB) is introduced and, in 1979, moves into production as the Employee Benefit Survey (EBS).

• 1986: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) is introduced.

• March 1986: ECEC private industry cost per hour estimates are first published.

• 1991: Occupational Compensation Survey (OCS) is introduced merging the AWS, IWS, and PATC into a single survey and conducted until 1997.

• March 1992: ECEC civilian, and state and local government workers cost per hour estimates are first published.

• 1996: COMP2000 is introduced merging the OCS, ECI/ECEC, and EBS into a single survey

• 2000: COMP2000 is renamed the National Compensation Survey (NCS).

• March 2002: Quarterly releases of ECEC begin (TXT) (PDF).

• March 2004: First estimates based on North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) are published, see Comparing current and former industry and occupation ECEC series.

• March 2009: Localities added to ECEC (see BLS introduces new Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data for private industry workers in 15 metropolitan areas).

• 2011: With the enactment of the 2011 Federal budget, the Locality Pay Survey (LPS) portion of the NCS was eliminated.

• 2016: First publication of the Modeled Wage Estimates (MWE).

• September 2016: Benchmarking process updated to include establishment size class (see The weighting process used in the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation series for the National Compensation Survey and Effect of benchmarking by industry and size class on National Compensation Survey Estimates).

• March 2018: Compensation Percentile Estimates (CPE) are first published. Prior research on this topic includes Calculating wage percentiles in the National Compensation Survey and Compensation inequality: evidence from the National Compensation Survey.

• December 2021: NCS maintained an additional (fourth) private industry sample in estimation to offset increased nonresponse.

• September 2023: An additional (fourth) private industry sample used to offset increased nonresponse is no longer used in estimation.

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• December 15, 2017