Regional News Releases

Subscribe to the BLS News Service — receive National Compensation Survey news releases and other major economic indicators by e-mail.

Archived News Releases

• ECI Archives - Complete set of ECI news releases from 1976.
• ECEC Archives - Complete set of ECEC news releases from 1986.
• Employee Benefits

Databases

Database Name	Special Notice	Top Picks	Data Finder	One Screen	Multi- Screen	Tables	Text Files
Pay
Modeled Wage Estimates
Pay & Cost of Benefits
Employment Cost Index
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
Benefit Incidence & Provisions
Employee Benefits Survey (1985 to 2006)
National Compensation Survey - Benefits (Beginning with 2010 data)*
*2007 to 2009 benefits data are not available in the National Compensation Survey data base. For data during these years, see the NCS publication archive.

More Tools

• Series Report — already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.
• Public data Application Programming Interface (API) — provides access to economic data from all BLS programs. For more information, see the Public Data API information and resources page.
• National Compensation Search — allows you to search through all the National Compensation Survey publications that are currently available electronically.

All NCS Databases »

Employment Cost Index

• Current-Dollar Historical Listings
  • NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) March 2001 - Present
  • SIC basis (TXT) (PDF) September 1975 - December 2005
• Constant-Dollar Historical Listings
  • NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) March 2001 - Present
  • SIC basis (TXT) (PDF) September 1975 - December 2005
• Continuous Occupational and Industry Series Historical Listings
  • (TXT) (PDF) September 1975 - Present
• Health Benefits Historical Listings
  • (TXT) (PDF) 1982 - Present
• Standard Errors
• Seasonal Factors and Revised Seasonally Adjusted Indexes
• Chart—Changes in wages and salaries and benefit costs, civilian workers
• Corrections to Employment Cost Index data, June 2009 - September 2010

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC)

• Historical Listings
• NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) March 2004 - Present
• SIC basis (TXT) (PDF) (quarterly) March 2002 - December 2003
• SIC basis (TXT) (PDF) (annual) March 1986 - March 2001
• News Release Relative Standard Errors (TXT) (PDF) Current quarter
• Supplemental Tables
• NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) Current quarter
• Relative Standard Errors (TXT) (PDF) Current quarter
• NAICS basis (TXT) (PDF) December 2006 - Present

Benefits

• Employee Benefits in the United States
• News Release and Standard Errors
• Health and Retirement Plan Provisions

Employment Cost Trends

• How to Use the Employment Cost Index for Escalation
• The Employment Cost Index and the Impact on Medicare Reimbursements (HTML) (PDF)

Benefits

• Holiday profiles
• Latest Glossary of Employee Benefit Terms (PDF)

Other Documents

• National Compensation Measures, Handbook of Methods (HTML) (PDF)

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

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.
5. Where can I find information about other NCS products?
   • Employer compensation costs
   • Benefits
   • Work stoppages
   • Occupational requirements
   • Modeled wage estimates

All NCS FAQs »

• Changes to the ECI series and mapping files — implemented with June 2014 release

Other BLS Resources

• 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.
• Work Stoppages—monthly and annual data and analysis of major work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers.
• Occupational Requirements Survey—job-related information regarding the requirements of work.
• Modeled Wage Estimates—annual estimates of average hourly wages for occupations by selected job characteristics and within geographical location.
• Compensation Research and Program Development Group—carries out research that addresses methodological, conceptual, and technical issues of concern to the Office of Compensation and Working Conditions (OCWC), which includes the National Compensation Survey, and the Workplace Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities Programs, and other Bureau programs.
• Consumer Price Indexes—monthly data on changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services.
• 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.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook—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.
• Producer Price Indexes—monthly data on changes in the selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services.
• Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages—comprehensive employment and wage data by industry and geographic area for workers covered by State Unemployment Insurance laws.
• Customer Service Guide—provides information about compensation and working conditions data available from the Bureau.
• Glossary of Compensation Terms—provides definitions and examples for employee compensation terms as used in the National Compensation Survey.
• Guide for Evaluating Your Firm's Jobs and Pay—explains how the Bureau determines the work level of an occupation in the National Compensation Survey.
• Monthly Labor Review—principal journal of fact, analysis, and research from the Bureau.
• Occupational Classification System Manual—system used by the Bureau to classify workers into occupational categories prior to implementation of the Standard Occupational Classification.
• Standard Occupational Classification—system used by Federal statistical agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data.

Other Useful Links

• North American Industry Classification System—system used by Federal statistical agencies to classify businesses into industry groups for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data.
• Wage and Hour Division—responsible for enforcing federal labor laws including minimum wage and hour standards.
• Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs—responsible for ensuring employers doing business with the federal government comply with the laws and regulations requiring equal employment opportunity.
• Employee Benefits Security Administration—provides participant and compliance assistance in the areas of retirement, health and other employee benefits.
• Health Insurance Definitions—provides terms and definitions approved by the Federal Government's Interdepartmental Committee on Employment-based Health Insurance Surveys for use in Federal surveys collecting employer-based health insurance data.
• Healthcare.gov Glossary—provides terms and definitions used on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' website healthcare.gov.

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.)

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.