The National Compensation Survey (NCS) provides comprehensive measures of employment cost trends and benefit incidence and detailed plan provisions. The index component of the NCS, the Employment Cost Index (ECI), is a federal principal economic indicator that measures change in labor costs. Average hourly employer cost for employee compensation is presented in the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) series. The benefits data from the NCS provide data on the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer provided benefit plans and provisions of selected employee benefit plans.

THE LOCALITY PAY SURVEY:
With the enactment of the 2011 Federal Budget, the Locality Pay Survey (LPS) portion of the National Compensation Survey was eliminated. Occupational data for the nation as a whole, for individual States, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas are still available through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program.

Announcement

HEALTH PLAN PROVISIONS IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES, 2011
The National Compensation Survey has released data on health plans in private industry for 2011. The bulletin provides updated information on health plans provisions for fee-for-service plans and health maintenance organizations, as well as provisions of dental and vision care plans. This bulletin is available at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/#bulletin_details. Additional benefits data are available on the National Compensation Survey web page at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs.
Similar health tables for 2011 in state and local government were published in March 2012. More...

On This Page

 

NCS News Releases

Employee Benefits in the United States

July 11, 2012
Medical care benefits were available to 57 percent of private industry workers in establishments with fewer than 100 employees compared to 89 percent of workers in establishments with 500 or more workers in March 2012. More...
(HTML) (PDF)

Employment Cost Index (ECI)

January 31, 2013
Wages and salaries rose 0.3 percent and benefit costs rose 0.6 percent for civilian workers, seasonally adjusted, from September to December 2012. Over the year, compensation rose 1.9 percent, wages and salaries 1.7 percent, and benefits 2.5 percent. More...
(HTML) (PDF)

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC)

December 11, 2012
Employer costs for state and local government workers averaged $26.91 per hour worked for wages and salaries and $14.65 for benefits in September 2012. State and local government health benefit costs averaged $4.86 per hour worked in September 2012. More...
(HTML) (PDF)

Archived NCS News Releases

  • ECI Archives - Complete set of ECI news releases from 1976.
  • ECEC Archives - Complete set of ECEC news releases from 1986.
  • Employee Benefits—latest benefit news releases.
    • Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2011 (TXT) (PDF)
    • Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2010 (TXT) (PDF)
    • Health Plan Provision in State and Local Government in the United States, 2011 (PDF)
    • Employee Benefits in State and Local Government, September 2007 (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

 

NCS Databases

Databases

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

 

More Tools

  • Series Report —Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.
  • National Compensation Search--allows you to search through all the National Compensation Survey publications that are currently available electronically.

All NCS Databases »

 

Featured NCS Tables

  • ECI Current-Dollar Historical Listings
  • ECI Constant-Dollar Historical Listings

  • EBS Standard Errors

  • 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 »

 

NCS Publications and Other Documenation

Employment Cost Trends

Benefits

Wages

Other Documents

 

NCS Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is the NCS?
  2. What is the status of Locality Pay Surveys (LPS)?
  3. What is the role of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Federal pay administration process?
  4. How can an aggregate ECI series be lower, or higher, than all of its component series? For example, the 3-month seasonally adjusted percent change for compensation, civilian workers in March 2012, was 0.4 percent. However, the change for its two components-wages and salaries and benefits-are both 0.5 percent.

Links to Other NCS Products:

  1. NCS wage data? www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/
  2. Data on compensation costs or employment cost trends? www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/
  3. Benefit data? www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/
  4. Work stoppages? www.bls.gov/wsp/

All NCS FAQs »

 

NCS Special Notice

None

NCS Related Links

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.
  • Major Work Stoppages—provides monthly and annual data and analysis of major work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers.

Other Useful Links

 

Contact Us

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.

Ways to Contact BLS Directly

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.

TDD

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

Write or Personal Visit

Bureau of Labor Statistics
OCLT/SI&P
2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E. - Suite 4175
Washington, D.C. 20212-0001

Other Ways to Access our Data:

 Libraries

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