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Handbook of Methods Employer Costs for Employee Compensation Presentation

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation: Presentation

The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) publications provide estimates for the March, June, September, and December reference periods, measuring the average employer cost for wages, salaries, and benefits per employee hour worked. Costs as a percent of total compensation are also available. These include cost estimates for private and public sector workers, union and nonunion workers, full-time and part-time workers, and estimates by establishment size. Estimates are classified by industry (North American Industry Classification System), occupation (Standard Occupation Classification system), and area (census regions, census divisions, and Metropolitan Statistical Areas).

Publications

Released in March, June, September, and December, the primary publication is the ECEC news release, which contains summary text, data tables, and a technical note. The summary text describes the latest cost data, and the tables provide compensation costs and costs as a percentage of total compensation. The technical note describes the classification systems and the methods used to calculate the ECEC. In addition to the news release, interactive charts are available. Links to the database query tool, which is a database that contains the complete set of available data, can be found on the ECEC homepage as well.

Additional outputs that are updated with the news release include the historical tables. Historical tables are available as spreadsheets for data on civilian, private industry, and state and local government workers. 

For the March ECEC release, specifically, supplementary data are also released: 

• Compensation percentile estimates (CPE) data are constructed using wages and salaries to determine the 10th-, 50th- (median), and 90th-percentile bands, and the average benefit costs for observations included in those percentile wage bands. For information on the ECEC’s compensation percentiles, see the factsheet.
• Metropolitan area data are available starting in 2009, for the private industry only. For information on the ECEC’s metropolitan areas, see the “Metropolitan area estimates: providing more geographical data for the cost of compensation” factsheet. 

Accessing data 

A comprehensive set of recent ECEC data is available on the BLS website.

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation homepage

News Release (Latest) (Archived)

Tables and spreadsheets

Relative Standard Error tables

Interactive charts

Public database tools

Users and uses

Data from the ECEC are used for a variety of reasons by the private sector, including to aid in collective bargaining negotiations, evaluate benefit packages, analyze contract settlements, guide decisions in business or plant location, assist in wage and salary administration, and adjust wages in long-term contracts. The public sector also uses the ECEC to formulate and assess public policy, aid collective bargaining negotiations, evaluate benefit packages, and analyze contract settlements. Some examples of ECEC users and uses include: 

• Costs associated with employee compensation. The Department of Energy uses ECEC data to benchmark its compensation costs in the process of selecting potential contractors (see the U.S. Department of Energy Cost study manual).
• Comparisons between costs in the public and private sector. The National Association of State Budget Officers uses ECEC data to assess its compensation costs and their relative costs (see The relative importance of health and retirement benefits in state and local employee compensation).
• Setting minimum wages and benefit payments. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division uses ECEC data to pay service employees’ wages and offer them benefits as consistent with their locality (see All agency memorandum).
• Estimating benefit expenditures. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation uses ECEC data for many purposes; such as responding to congressional requests, researching retirement savings rates, and to help evaluate the viability of their insurance programs (see the “Compensation component costs by bargaining status in the construction, extraction, farming, fishing, and forestry; leisure and hospitality; and wholesale trade industries” data request example on the Special data request page). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services use ECEC data to assist in estimation and comparison of U.S. employer-based private health insurance expenditures in the National Health Expenditure Accounts (see the “Compensation component costs by industry” data request example on the Special data request page). 

Correction and revision policies

ECEC cost estimates are final upon publication, though there are some revisions made with the Compensation Percentile Estimates that are only released with the March data publication. Constant dollar compensation percentile estimates are revised to reflect the most recent year. The CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) U.S. City Average All Items is used to adjust prior years’ costs to current dollar costs. Each year, the constant dollar (real) estimates are updated to reflect the most recent reference period. 

If an error is discovered in any published data product for the ECEC, the publication is corrected and republished as soon as possible. Any corrections will be clearly noted on the publication, the public homepage, and the BLS errata page. 

Special data requests

Requests for special tabulations are evaluated and processed according to resource availability and complexity of the request. The ECEC does not produce estimates for individual states, as the National Compensation Survey (NCS) is not designed to produce state level estimates. All special tabulations are reviewed for reliability and confidentiality prior to release, which may limit the data provided. If the special tabulation data are cited, the user should indicate that these are unpublished estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, and provide the associated reference period.  

For special tabulation of data, use the NCS inquiry request form, enter “special data request” in the subject line, and indicate the scope of the request. Users should provide a detailed explanation of the scope that includes ownership (civilian, private, and state and local government), industry, occupation, worker and establishment characteristics, and time period. This detailed explanation will expedite the evaluation.

Availability of microdata

ECEC microdata are available on a limited basis to researchers who want to conduct valid statistical analyses. Researchers are encouraged to apply for access as early as possible and to discuss the project with appropriate BLS contacts prior to submitting an application. For more information, see the BLS Restricted Data Access homepage.