The National Compensation Survey (NCS) provides comprehensive measures of occupational wages; employment cost trends, and benefit incidence and detailed plan provisions. Detailed occupational earnings are available for metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, broad geographic regions, and on a national basis. The index component of the NCS (ECI) measures changes in labor costs. Average hourly employer cost for employee compensation is presented in the ECEC.

Announcements

    HEALTH AND RETIREMENT PLAN PROVISIONS IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY, 2010

    The National Compensation Survey has released data on health and retirement plans in private industry for 2010. The bulletin provides updated information on health plans provisions for fee-for-service plans and health maintenance organizations, and new data on high-deductible and consumer-driven heath plans. Detailed information on types and provisions of defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans are also included. 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.

     

    CORRECTIONS TO 2009 AREA WAGE SURVEYS

    Data in the Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Truckee, CA-NV, 2009 bulletin (TXT) (PDF) and the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA, 2009 bulletin (TXT) (PDF) contained errors throughout due to a data entry error and have been corrected. MORE »

     

    BENEFITS FOR UNMARRIED DOMESTIC PARTNERS

    For the first time, the National Compensation Survey produced data on employer-provided benefits available to unmarried domestic partners. The new data was published in tables 7 and 8 of the recently released Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2011. Table 7 has information on survivor benefits in defined benefit retirement plans. Table 8 has data on health care benefits. A fact sheet on unmarried domestic partner benefits summarizes the major findings.

     

    SELECTED MEDICAL BENEFITS SURVEY

    The National Compensation Survey has released data on 12 additional medical benefits not previously published in its recent survey of benefit provisions. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 directs the Secretary of Labor to conduct a survey of employer-sponsored health plans to determine the benefits typically covered by employers, and to report the results of the survey to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This study was conducted to supplement the medical benefit provisions regularly published as part of the National Compensation Survey’s employee benefits program.

    The full version of the report is available at www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/sp/selmedbensreport.pdf. Links to this report and other recent health benefits data are available on the National Compensation Survey web page, www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/smb_health.htm. The 12 additional medical benefits come from the same sample that yielded data for NCS: Health and Retirement Plan Provisions in Private Industry in the United States, 2009, at www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/detailedprovisions/2009/ebbl0045.pdf.

    More Info »

 

For Your Information

Changes in the presentation of the text section of The Employment Cost Index news release were incorporated in the edition published on July 31, 2009. There were no changes to the format and content of the tables. More...

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NCS News Releases

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...
(HTML) (PDF)

Employment Cost Index (ECI)

January 31, 2012
Wages and salaries for civilian workers rose 0.4% and benefit costs rose 0.6%, seasonally adjusted, from September to December 2011. Over the year, compensation rose 2.0%, wages and salaries 1.4%, and benefits 3.2%. More...
(HTML) (PDF)

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC)

December 07, 2011
Employer costs for state and local government workers averaged $26.57 per hour worked for wages and salaries and $14.19 for benefits in September 2011. State and local government health benefit costs averaged $4.74 per hour worked in September 2011. More...
(HTML) (PDF)

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)
  • 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

 

NCS Databases

Databases

Database Name Special
Notice		 Top
Picks		 One
Screen		 Multi-
Screen		 Tables Text Files
Pay
National Compensation Survey
 Special Notice     Multi Screen Data Search Tables Text Files
Pay & Cost of Benefits
Employment Cost Index
 Special Notice 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

 

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

NCS Publications

Wages

Employment Cost Trends

Benefits

Other Documents

 

NCS Frequently Asked Questions

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 »

 

NCS Special Notice

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.

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.
  • Collective Bargaining Agreements—data on major work stoppages (lockouts and strikes) and a file of collective bargaining agreements.

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

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Washington, D.C. 20212-0001

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