July 28, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Compensation costs up 4.6 percent over the year

Compensation costs in private industry rose 4.6 percent in the year ended June 2000, following increases of 3.3 percent in June 1999 and 3.5 percent in June 1998.

[Chart data—TXT]

Wages and salaries rose 4.1 percent in private industry from June 1999 to June 2000. Wages and salaries increased 3.6 percent between June 1998 and June 1999.

Benefit costs for private industry workers increased 5.7 percent for the year ended in June 2000, a significant increase from 2.5 percent in June 1999. The rise in benefit costs was due, in part, to higher payments for health insurance, supplemental pay, and paid leave.

These data are from the BLS Employment Cost Trends program. Learn more in "Employment Cost Index—June 2000," news release USDL 00-215. The over-the-year changes reported in this article are based on not-seasonally-adjusted data. This release introduces an expanded definition of nonproduction bonuses designed to improve the Employment Cost Index's representation of the compensation packages offered to employees. See "Nonproduction bonus fact sheet" (PDF 14K).