January 30, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Wages, benefit costs for State and local government workers both rise 0.8 percent

Wages and salaries for State and local government workers rose 0.8 percent in the quarter ended in December (seasonally adjusted), the same increase as the previous two quarters.

3-month percent changes in Employment Cost Index, wages and salaries and benefits costs for State and local government workers, seasonally adjusted, March 1999-December 2000
[Chart data—TXT]

Benefit costs for State and local government employees also rose 0.8 percent in the December quarter, compared with 0.1 percent in the September quarter.

The December 2000 over-the-year increase in wages and salaries in State and local government was 3.3 percent, compared with a 3.6 percent increase recorded for December 1999. The 12-month gain in benefit costs for December 2000 was 2.4 percent; in December 1999, the gain was 2.8 percent.

These data are from the BLS Employment Cost Trends program. Learn more in "Employment Cost Index—December 2000," news release USDL 01-31.