Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.5 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the three-month period ending June 2010. Wages and salaries (which make up about 70 percent of compensation costs) increased 0.4 percent while benefits (which make up the remaining 30 percent of compensation) increased 0.6 percent.
Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 1.8 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2010. This was the same as the 12-month period ending in June 2009.
Wages and salaries increased 1.6 percent for the current 12-month period, compared to a 1.8-percent increase for the 12-month period ending in June 2009.
Benefit costs rose 2.5 percent, up from a 1.8-percent increase for the 12-month period ending June 2009.
This data is from the BLS Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employment Cost Index — June 2010" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-1047. The Employment Cost Index (ECI) measures the change in the cost of labor, free from the influence of employment shifts among occupations and industries. Benefits costs include paid leave, supplemental leave, insurance benefits, retirement and savings, and legally required benefits. Paid leave include employer cost for vacations, holidays, sick leave and personal leave.
