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Compensation costs for private industry workers up 3.4 percent over the year ending March 2026

May 08, 2026

Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 3.4 percent from March 2025 to March 2026. Wages and salaries increased 3.4 percent over the year, and benefit costs increased 3.6 percent. These 12-month increases were similar to the 12-month increases from March 2024 to March 2025, when compensation costs rose 3.4 percent, wages and salaries increased 3.4 percent, and benefit costs increased 3.5 percent.

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Chart Data

12-month percent change in compensation costs for private-industry workers, current dollars and constant (inflation-adjusted) dollars
Month	Total compensation, current dollars	Wages and salaries, current dollars	Benefit costs, current dollars	Total compensation, constant dollars	Wages and salaries, constant dollars	Benefit costs, constant dollars
Mar 2016	1.8	2.0	1.2	1.0	1.2	0.3
Jun 2016	2.4	2.6	1.7	1.4	1.6	0.7
Sep 2016	2.3	2.4	1.8	0.8	1.0	0.3
Dec 2016	2.2	2.3	1.8	0.1	0.3	-0.4
Mar 2017	2.3	2.6	1.9	0.0	0.1	-0.5
Jun 2017	2.4	2.4	2.2	0.7	0.7	0.5
Sep 2017	2.5	2.6	2.4	0.3	0.4	0.2
Dec 2017	2.6	2.8	2.3	0.5	0.6	0.3
Mar 2018	2.8	2.9	2.5	0.4	0.6	0.2
Jun 2018	2.9	2.9	2.8	0.0	0.1	0.0
Sep 2018	2.9	3.1	2.5	0.6	0.8	0.1
Dec 2018	3.0	3.1	2.6	1.1	1.2	0.6
Mar 2019	2.8	3.0	2.4	0.9	1.1	0.4
Jun 2019	2.6	3.0	1.8	1.0	1.3	0.2
Sep 2019	2.7	3.0	2.0	1.0	1.2	0.3
Dec 2019	2.7	3.0	1.9	0.4	0.7	-0.3
Mar 2020	2.8	3.3	1.6	1.3	1.7	0.2
Jun 2020	2.7	2.9	2.0	2.0	2.3	1.3
Sep 2020	2.4	2.7	2.0	1.0	1.2	0.6
Dec 2020	2.6	2.8	2.1	1.2	1.5	0.8
Mar 2021	2.8	3.0	2.5	0.2	0.4	-0.2
Jun 2021	3.1	3.5	2.0	-2.2	-1.8	-3.1
Sep 2021	4.1	4.6	2.6	-1.3	-0.7	-2.6
Dec 2021	4.4	5.0	2.9	-2.5	-1.9	-3.8
Mar 2022	4.8	5.0	4.1	-3.5	-3.3	-4.0
Jun 2022	5.5	5.7	5.3	-3.3	-3.1	-3.5
Sep 2022	5.2	5.2	5.0	-2.8	-2.7	-3.0
Dec 2022	5.1	5.1	4.8	-1.2	-1.2	-1.5
Mar 2023	4.8	5.1	4.3	-0.2	0.1	-0.6
Jun 2023	4.5	4.6	3.9	1.5	1.7	0.9
Sep 2023	4.3	4.5	3.9	0.6	0.8	0.2
Dec 2023	4.1	4.3	3.6	0.7	0.9	0.2
Mar 2024	4.1	4.3	3.6	0.6	0.8	0.1
Jun 2024	3.9	4.1	3.5	0.9	1.1	0.5
Sep 2024	3.6	3.8	3.3	1.2	1.2	0.8
Dec 2024	3.6	3.7	3.3	0.7	0.8	0.4
Mar 2025	3.4	3.4	3.5	1.1	1.0	1.1
Jun 2025	3.5	3.5	3.4	0.8	0.8	0.8
Sep 2025	3.5	3.6	3.5	0.5	0.6	0.5
Dec 2025	3.4	3.3	3.4	0.6	0.7	0.7
Mar 2026	3.4	3.4	3.6	0.1	0.1	0.3
Note: Data are not seasonally adjusted.

Inflation-adjusted (constant dollar) compensation costs for private industry workers increased 0.1 percent from March 2025 to March 2026. Inflation-adjusted wages and salaries increased 0.1 percent over the year, and inflation-adjusted benefit costs increased 0.3 percent. On an inflation-adjusted basis over the year ending March 2025, compensation costs rose 1.1 percent as wages and salaries increased 1.0 percent and benefit costs increased 1.1 percent.

These data are from the Employment Cost Index program and are not seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see "Employment Cost Index — March 2026." We also have more charts on the Employment Cost Index. Total compensation costs are the sum of wages and salaries plus benefit costs.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Compensation costs for private industry workers up 3.4 percent over the year ending March 2026 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/compensation-costs-for-private-industry-workers-up-3-4-percent-over-the-year-ending-march-2026.htm (visited May 08, 2026).

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