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Handbook of Methods Employer Costs for Employee Compensation More Info

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation: More Info

Additional information on the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) is available on the ECEC homepage. 

ECEC data are available on the BLS website:

• Database
• Tables
• Latest news release 

Visit the ECEC program's commonly asked questions and answers page. 

Articles

Selected articles on Employer Costs for Employee Compensation methodology are referenced below. 

Benchmarking (post-stratification):

• "Changes in calculations for the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data," March 2007
• “The weighting process used in the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation series for the National Compensation Survey”, 2011

Estimation:

• “The National Compensation Survey and the Affordable Care Act: preserving quality health care data,” April 2015
• "BLS introduces new Employer Costs for Employee Compensation Data for private industry workers in 15 Metropolitan Areas," September 2009
• “Calculating wage percentiles in the National Compensation Survey,” April 2004
• "Measuring trends in the structure and levels of Employer Costs for Employee Compensation," 1997

Imputation:

• "An evaluation of alternative imputation methods", 1995
• "Alternative imputation models for wage related data collected from establishment surveys", 2000

Reliability:

• "Analyzing year-to-year changes in Employer Costs for Employee Compensation", 1998
• “Changes in variance estimation calculations for the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data,” March 2007

Sample design:

• "State and local government sample design for the National Compensation Survey," October 2012  
• "Update on the evaluation of sample design issues in the National Compensation Survey," August 2011
• "Evaluating sample design issues in the National Compensation Survey," October 2010 

Other National Compensation Survey (NCS) products

The National Compensation Survey (NCS) is an establishment-based survey that provides data on pay and benefits. Its outputs include the Employment Cost Index (ECI), Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), and Employee Benefits publications. 

Data from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey and NCS programs are combined and provided to the President’s Pay Agent to meet the requirements of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (FEPCA). FEPCA established locality pay and the President’s Pay Agent designated locality pay areas based on Office of Management and Budget (OMB) statistical area definitions. The President’s Pay Agent advises the President on the issues of federal pay. It is made up of the Secretary of Labor and the directors of the OMB. For more information, see the Annual Report of the President’s Pay Agent.  A combination of OEWS and NCS data is used by the President’s Pay Agent (in a report to the Federal Salary Council) to recommend adjustments in pay levels of some federal workers.  

Contact us

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Telephone: (202) 691-6199 (Monday through Friday, 8:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. EST)

Information for NCS respondents is available on the National Compensation Survey (NCS) Respondents webpage. Visit the regional office contact page for regional office contact information. 

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