Employment Cost Index Health Benefits National Compensation Survey January 2017 www.bls.gov Private industry, 12-month percent change in employer costs per hour worked, total benefits and health benefits Health benefits: Year | March June Sept. Dec. || Year | March June Sept. Dec. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ 1982 | 14.7 16.2 18.1 18.3 || 2000 | 7.6 8.0 8.5 8.5 1983 | 23.5 22.4 21.3 20.4 || 2001 | 8.1 8.6 8.7 9.2 1984 | 17.6 15.9 13.1 12.5 || 2002 | 10.5 11.4 11.2 10.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1985 | 8.5 6.7 6.5 5.2 || 2003 | 9.8 10.3 10.1 10.5 1986 | 3.9 3.5 3.6 4.1 || 2004 | 9.3 8.1 7.3 7.3 1987 | 4.7 6.1 5.5 6.3 || 2005 | 7.5 6.3 6.7 6.4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1988 | 10.5 12.2 13.9 14.7 || 2006 | 4.8 5.2 4.9 4.9 1989 | 13.6 13.4 13.7 12.8 || 2007 | 4.9 4.8 4.8 4.8 1990 | 12.2 12.0 11.5 11.3 || 2008 | 4.6 4.2 3.9 3.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1991 | 11.5 11.1 10.9 11.2 || 2009 | 4.6 4.4 4.6 4.3 1992 | 10.3 9.6 9.2 8.6 || 2010 | 4.5 5.0 4.8 5.0 1993 | 8.1 7.8 7.2 6.9 || 2011 | 3.4 3.6 3.4 3.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1994 | 5.7 5.0 4.3 3.9 || 2012 | 3.0 2.4 2.3 2.1 1995 | 1.6 0.6 -0.1 0.1 || 2013 | 3.0 2.6 2.7 3.0 1996 | -0.3 0.1 0.7 0.4 || 2014 | 2.4 2.7 2.6 2.4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1997 | 0.2 0.7 0.8 0.9 || 2015 | 2.5 2.8 3.0 3.0 1998 | 2.2 2.6 2.2 2.5 || 2016 | 3.3 2.8 2.7 2.7 1999 | 3.7 4.0 5.0 5.8 || ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical Note The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a quarterly index, the Employment Cost Index (ECI) that includes measures of change in the cost of employee benefits. Data are collected for individual benefits within several benefit categories: paid leave, supplemental pay, insurance benefits, retirement and savings, legally required benefits, and other benefits. The measure of change in the cost of health benefits presented here is the only benefit for which BLS makes separate data available. The 12-month percent change in health benefit costs from the ECI should be used with caution. First, employer nonresponse for the health benefit component is substantial, which may affect the quality of the estimate. Second, there are fewer observations supporting health benefit estimates as compared with total benefit estimates. Finally, in some cases, respondents are able to report only a single cost for a combination of benefits (for example, life insurance and health benefits); in these instances, BLS allocates the cost among the benefits. Users should also be aware that the ECI may understate health insurer increases for a fixed set of plans because employers may reduce their contributions or employees may switch to lower cost health plans where there is an employee contribution. For these reasons, please exercise care in using and interpreting these estimates. For further information see: “Health Insurance Series Now Available from the Employment Cost Index” at: www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/cwc/health-insurance- series-now-available-from-the-employment-cost-index.pdf. This listing includes Employment Cost Index estimate corrections as announced on the Bureau’s errata page, see www.bls.gov/bls/erratabysubject.htm. *BLS National Compensation Survey . www.bls.gov/ect . NCSinfo@bls.gov . 202.691.6199