Change in compensation costs, December 2007-March 2008

Total compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.7 percent from December 2007 to March 2008, seasonally adjusted.

[Chart data—TXT]

The increase for the September to December 2007 period was 0.8 percent.

In the most recent quarter, wages and salaries rose 0.8 percent and benefits rose 0.6 percent. In the previous quarter, both wages and salaries and benefits increased 0.8 percent.

Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 3.3 percent for the year ended March 2008. For the year ended March 2007 the increase was 3.5 percent.

Civilian workers are defined here as nonfarm private industry and state and local government workers.

These data are from the BLS National Compensation Survey - Compensation Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employment Cost Index—March 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-0508. Compensation costs (also known as employment costs) include wages, salaries, and employer costs for employee benefits.