June 29, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Access to disability insurance benefits in March 2003
Workers in occupations averaging $15 an hour or more were in a much better position with respect to access to benefits than were those in occupations averaging under $15 in March 2003.
![Percent of workers with access to disability insurance benefits, by wage range, private industry, National Compensation Survey, March 2003](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120924213501im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/2004/jun/wk5/art02.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
The difference was particularly striking in rates of access to long-term disability insurance. Only 17 percent of those earning under $15 had access to such coverage, compared with half of those in the higher earnings category.
With regard to short-term disability insurance, 29 percent of those earning less than $15 per hour had access to this benefit, while 53 percent of those earning more than $15 per hour had access.
Among all workers, 30 percent had access to long-term disability insurance, and 39 percent had access to short-term disability insurance.
These data are from the BLS National Compensation Survey program. Learn more in "National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in Private Industry in the United States, March 2003"
(PDF), Summary 04-02.
Related TED articles:
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.
.
Read more »