National Compensation Survey

Employee Benefits in the United States

July 26, 2011
Paid vacations were available to 91 percent of full-time workers in private industry in March 2011 versus 37 percent of part-time workers. Access to paid sick leave was 75 percent for full-time and 27 percent for part-time private industry workers. More...
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Employment Cost Index (ECI)

April 27, 2012
Wages and salaries and benefit costs for civilian workers rose 0.5 percent, seasonally adjusted, from December 2011 to March 2012. Over the year, compensation rose 1.9 percent, wages and salaries 1.7 percent, and benefits 2.7 percent. More...
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Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC)

March 14, 2012
Private industry employers spent an average of $28.57 per hour worked for employee compensation in December 2011. Private industry costs averaged $1.97 per hour worked for paid leave benefits and $2.33 for legally required benefits. More...
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Current NCS News Releases

• Employment Cost Index (ECI) (HTML) (PDF)
• ECI Archives - Complete set of ECI news releases from 1976.
• Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (HTML) (PDF)
• ECEC Archives - Complete set of ECEC news releases from 1986.
• Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2010 (TXT) (PDF)
• Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2011 (TXT) (PDF)
• Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2008 (TXT) (PDF)
• Employee Benefits in State and Local Government, September 2007 (HTML) (PDF)
• Occupational Pay Comparisons Among Metropolitan Areas (HTML) (PDF)
• Subscribe to the BLS News Service—receive the Employment Cost Index news release and other major economic indicators by e-mail.
• NCS Regional News Releases
• ECI Regional News Releases

Databases

Database Name	Special Notice	Top Picks	One Screen	Multi- Screen	Tables	Text Files
Pay
National Compensation Survey
Pay & Cost of Benefits
Employment Cost Index
Employer Cost for Employee Compensation
Benefit Incidence & Provisions
Employee Benefits Survey
National Compensation Survey - Benefits (Beginning with 2010 data)

More Tools

• Series Report —Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.

• Flat files (FTP) —For those who want it all. Download a flat file of the entire database or large subset of the database.
  • Wages (NCS)
  • Employment Cost Trends (ECT)
  • Benefits (EBS)

• National Compensation Search--allows you to search through all the National Compensation Survey publications that are currently available electronically.

All NCS Databases »

• ECI Current-Dollar Historical Listings
• UPDATED NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF)
• SIC basis (TXT) (PDF)
• ECI Constant-Dollar Historical Listings
• UPDATED NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF)
• SIC basis (TXT) (PDF)
• UPDATED ECI Standard Errors
• Corrections to Employment Cost Index data, June 2009 – September 2010
• ECEC Historical Listing, 2004 to present (Quarterly)-Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (TXT) (PDF) -- Quarterly estimates from March 2004 to the present, with sample establishments classified by industry categories based on the new 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the 2000 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.

All NCS Tables »

 

Wages

• National Bulletin, July 2010
• National Bulletin, July 2009
• National Bulletin, July 2008
• National Bulletin, July 2007
• Census Divisions
• Localities
• Occupational Pay Relatives
• Archives

Employment Cost Trends

• Indexes (ECI)
• Cost levels (ECEC)
• Archives

Benefits

• Recent retirement benefits data
• Recent health benefits data
• Retirement Benefit Estimates for State and Local Government Workers, 2007 - Summary
• Employee Benefits in State and Local Governments, Summary, September 2007
• Employee Benefits in Private Industry, Summary, March 2007
• Employee Benefits in Private Industry
• Medium and Large Establishments
• Small Establishments
• State & Local Governments
• Archives

Other Documents

• Using Wage Data from the National Compensation Survey (PDF 284K)
• NCS: Guide for Evaluating Your Firm's Jobs and Pay.
• NCS:A Guide for Respondents
• OCWC Customer Service Guide
• Glossary of Compensation Terms
• Glossary of Employee Benefit Terms (PDF)
• Handbook of Methods, Chapter 8, National Compensation Measures (PDF)
• Occupation Classification Manual
• Health Insurance Definitions
• Online Publication
• Compensation and Working Condition (CWC) Online
• Monthly Labor Review (MLR) Online

All NCS Publications (including benefits, compensation costs, and wages) »

People Are Asking...

1. How prevalent are cash account (cash balance) pension plans?
2. Are more workers covered by indemnity plans or HMOs?
3. Can employees typically choose how their 401(k) funds are invested, and how often can those funds be invested in company stock?
4. What is a floor-offset plan?
5. How can I get NCS wage data?
6. What benefits data do you have?
7. Do you have data on compensation costs or employment cost trends?
8. What kinds of collective bargaining agreements are maintained?

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the role of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Federal pay administration process?
2. What are the plans for the Locality Pay Surveys (LPS)?
3. What is the NCS?
4. What are the differences between NCS occupational wage data and the Bureau's Occupation Employment Statistics Survey (OES) wage data?
5. How are occupations chosen and why?
6. How can you compare areas with differing mixtures of jobs?
7. Will data be available for the entire U.S.? What about regional data?
8. How can an employer use NCS data to set pay?
9. What areas do you survey?

All NCS FAQs »

Status of Locality Pay Surveys (LPS)

With the enactment of the Federal Government's 2011 budget, the Locality Pay Survey (LPS) portion of the National Compensation Survey (NCS) was eliminated. The final set of LPS products are now published which include the National Bulletin, Nine Census Summaries, Occupational Pay Relatives, and the LPS locality wage estimates. These products will not be produced in the future but we would like to develop methodologies, resources permitting, so that similar estimates can be modeled in the future.

To meet the locality pay requirements of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990, data from the BLS Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) and NCS programs will be used. The OES program provides wage data by occupation for all localities nationwide. The Employment Cost Index (ECI) program will continue to provide detailed worker characteristics such as work level, union status, and part- or full-time work schedule. Together, these two programs allow the BLS to develop wage data by worker characteristics for many occupations and localities.

Although LPS estimates will no longer be available, all other National Compensation Survey product lines, including the Employment Cost Index (ECI) (see Employment Cost Trends) and NCS Benefits, will continue to be produced. Occupational wage estimates will be still available from the OES program.

Related Links to Other BLS Programs

• Employment Cost Trends—quarterly indexes measuring change over time in labor costs and quarterly data measuring level of average costs per hour worked.
• Benefits—comprehensive data on incidence and provisions of selected employee benefit plans.
• Occupational Employment Statistics—data on employment and wages for over 800 occupations and for about 400 nonfarm industries for the nation, plus occupational data for States and metropolitan areas.
• Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages —comprehensive employment and wage data by industry and geographic area for workers covered by State Unemployment Insurance laws.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook—provides data for 250 occupations, by nature of the work, working conditions, employment, job outlook and earnings, related occupations, sources of additional information, and training, other qualifications, and advancement.
• Collective Bargaining Agreements—data on major work stoppages (lockouts and strikes) and a file of collective bargaining agreements.

Other Useful Links

• Wage and Hour Division (WHD)—responsible for enforcing federal labor laws including minimum wage and hour standards.
• Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)—responsible for ensuring employers doing business with the federal government comply with the laws and regulations requiring equal employment opportunity.
• Employee Benefit Research Institute—offers a detailed description of private- and public-sector employee benefit programs as they exist today.

Contacts

The Office of Compensation Levels and Trends, Branch of Survey Information and Publications, will be glad to assist you with questions about any of the components of the National Compensation Survey.

Email: Contact us

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

Question-by-FAX: (202) 691-6647

Information and assistance is also available from any BLS regional office.

Information voice phone: (202) 691-5200 The Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339

Write or Personal Visit

Federal Depository Libraries provide free access to government documents. Many of these libraries receive BLS publications. Check with a location near you.

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