Benefits April 25, 2001

Integrated Wage/Benefit Data Now Available

April 25, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Interrelated data on wage levels and benefit plan details will now be available from a single source, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) National Compensation Survey (NCS).
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The survey combines many of its compensation measures into a single integrated comprehensive program detailing the wages, benefits and establishment practices available to American workers.

Survey output

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The survey produces series in four basic areas:

  • Occupational wage estimates
  • Employer compensation cost trends and levels
  • Benefit availability
  • Benefit details

In detail

Occupational wages are published for local areas, geographic regions and the US as a whole and further divided by industry group public sector versus private sector, full time versus part time, union status and establishment size.

Levels of compensation are gauged by the Employment Cost Index, a leading economic indicator that estimates the proportion of those costs attributable to various types of compensation. Published quarterly, the findings are also included in the NCS.

Data is also produced on the amount that employers spend on wages and benefits. This series presents cost in dollars and cents per hour worked and shows the ratio of the cost of each benefit to the total cost of compensation.

The survey also provides detailed benefit analysis, including information on the participation rates in each type of benefit plan in such a way as to permit comparisons of benefit incidence and employer cost.

Detailed analyses of NCS data are published in the “Monthly Labor Review” and “Compensation and Working Conditions”, both published by the BLS. All data is available on the BLS Web site at http://stats.bls.gov

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