National Compensation Survey

Employment Cost Index (ECI)

April 30, 2008
Total compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.7 percent, seasonally adjusted, from December 2007 to March 2008. Last quarter, the increase was 0.8 percent. Over the year, compensation costs rose 3.3 percent; the March 2007 12-month percent increase was 3.5 percent. More...
(HTML) (PDF)

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC)

June 11, 2008
Employers spent an average of $28.46 per hour worked for compensation in March 2008. Wages and salaries averaged $19.83 and benefits averaged $8.63. Health insurance was the largest individual benefit cost at $2.26 per hour worked, which accounted for 7.9 percent of total compensation costs. More...
(HTML) (PDF)

Current NCS News Releases

• Employment Cost Index (ECI) (HTML) (PDF)
• ECI Archives - Complete set of ECI news releases from 1976.
• UPDATED Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (HTML) (PDF)
• ECEC Archives - Complete set of ECEC news releases from 1986.
• Employee Benefits in State and Local Government--September 2007 (HTML) (PDF)
• Employee Benefits in Private Industry, 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.

Databases

Database Name	Special Notice	Top Picks	One Screen	Multi- Screen	Text Files
Tutorials: For help, try these tutorials.
Pay
National Compensation Survey
Pay & Cost of Benefits
Employment Cost Index
Employer Cost for Employee Compensation
Benefit Incidence & Provisions
Employee Benefits Survey

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
• NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF 332K)
• SIC basis (TXT) (PDF 573K)
• ECI Constant-Dollar Historical Listings
• NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF 297K)
• SIC basis (TXT) (PDF 467K)

• ECI Standard Errors
• UPDATED ECEC Historical Listing, 2004 to present (Quarterly)-Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (TXT) (PDF 780K) -- 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 Summary
• National Bulletin -- includes chartbook for the first time
• Census Divisions
• Localities
• NCS Supplemental Tables

• Occupational Pay Relatives

• Archives

• Rankings of full-time occupations, by earnings, 2000
• Supplementary table 3. Alphabetical index of occupations from the 2000 National Compensation Survey

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

• 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

• 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
• Occupation Classification Manual
• Health Insurance Definitions
• Online Publication
• Compensation and Working Condition (CWC) Online
• Monthly Labor Review (MLR) Online

People Are Asking...

1. How do I calculate the percent change between two time periods?
2. Once I have identified the series I want to use, how should I reference it to make sure it will not be confused with another series?
3. Where can I get wage determinations data?
4. Where can I obtain information on minimum wage and overtime laws and regulations?
5. Where can I find Employment Cost Index (wages & salaries and benefits) historical data?
6. How often are the ECI and ECEC published?
7. Does BLS interpret or forecast data on ECI and ECEC?
8. Is there a survey which shows compensation and benefits as a part of compensation?
9. Do you have breakdowns of the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation by state?
10. Does the Employment Cost Index include stock options?

All ECT FAQs »

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

• Employment Standards Administration—administers a variety of programs protecting the basic rights of workers, including minimum wage and hour standards, and equal employment opportunity.
• Employee Benefit Research Institute—offers a detailed description of private- and public-sector employee benefit programs as they exist today.