November 3, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Benefits now increasing at slower rate than wages and salaries
For the fourth year
in a row, benefit costs for civilian workers rose more slowly than wages
and salaries in 1998.
![Percent changes in Employment Cost Index for wages and salaries and for benefit costs, civilian workers, December to December, 1990-98](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925015217im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/1999/Nov/wk1/art03.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
The Employment Cost Index (ECI) for benefit costs grew by 2.6 percent
from December 1997 to December 1998. Wages and salaries increased by 3.7
percent over the same period.
At the beginning of the 1990s, benefits were climbing much more quickly
than wages—for example, benefit costs increased by 6.7 percent in 1990,
compared to 4.3 percent for wages and salaries. But since 1995, wages and salaries
have risen more rapidly than benefits each year.
These data are a product of the BLS Employment
Cost Trends program. Annual changes
are December to December. "Civilian workers" include those in
private industry and State and local government. The ECI excludes the
self-employed and farm, private household, and Federal Government
employees. Find out more in Employment Cost Indexes, 1975-98, BLS
Bulletin 2514.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »