Salary & Compensation Research at the Library of Congress

Government Resources

The following section contains information on compensation data available from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Dept. of Labor

• Wages, Earnings & Benefits

• Wages - by area (national, regional, state, metro) and by occupation
  
  
• Search for Bureau of Labor Statistics data on
  
  Wages
  Benefits
  
  
  
• National Compensation Survey

  Provides comprehensive measures of occupational earnings; compensation cost trends, benefit incidence, and detailed plan provisions.

  Other data available as part of the National Compensation Survey includes:

Table of Contents

Introduction
Glossaries/Dictionaries
Compensation by Position
         Administrative
         Financial
         Technical
         Miscellaneous Industries
         All Industries
Compensation by Place
Compensation Resources by Publisher
Government Resources
Foreign Resources
Subjects for Additional Searching

NCS - Wages

Provides data on occupational wages for localities, broad geographic regions, and the nation. For 1992-1996 it was called Occupational Compensation Survey

NCS areas (MSAs)

OECS Specialized Industry (barbershop, forestry, construction)

NCS - Benefits

Comprehensive data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefit plans.

Also contains links at the bottom of the screen to related publications.

• Employee Benefits in Private Industry. Department of Labor.

  Also available:
  Employee Benefits in Medium and Large Private Establishments
  Employee Benefits in Small Private Industry Establishments.

  
  
  
• Employment Cost Trends (National Compensation Survey - Compensation Cost Trends)

  Quarterly indexes measuring change over time in labor costs (ECI) and annual data measuring level of average costs per hour worked (ECEC).

• Covered Employment and Wages (CEW)

  A quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering 98 percent of U.S. jobs, available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry.

• Current Employment Statistics - National

  Survey of payroll records covers over 300,000 businesses on a monthly basis and provides detailed industry data on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls for the Nation.

• Current Employment Statistics - State

  Survey of payroll records covers over 390,000 businesses on a monthly basis and provide detailed industry data on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and over 270 metropolitan areas.

• Occupations

• Occupational Outlook Handbook

  Describes, for a wide range of occupations, the nature of the work, working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects.

• National Compensation Data

  Provides comprehensive measures of occupational earnings; compensation cost trends, benefit incidence, and detailed plan provisions.

• Occupational Employment Statistics

  Estimates employment and wage estimates for over 700 occupations. These are estimates of the number of people employed in certain occupations, and estimates of the wages paid to them. Self-employed persons are not included in the estimates.

• Occupational Classification System Manual (OCSM)

  Created to help ensure correct occupational matches when collecting compensation data. Users can look up job descriptions for occupations found in the NCS bulletins, and by knowing how the field economist classifies the thousands of occupations into BLS Major Occupation Groups (MOGs), e.g., Professional Occupations; sub-MOGs, e.g., Engineers, Architects, and Surveyors; or specific occupations, e.g., Aerospace Engineers.Indexed by the Census Occupation Index.

• Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)

  System used by all Federal statistical agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data. All workers are classified into one of over 820 occupations according to their occupational definition. To facilitate classification, occupations are combined to form 23 major groups, 96 minor groups, and 449 broad occupations. Each broad occupation includes detailed occupation(s) requiring similar job duties, skills, education, or experience.

• DICTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES 4th ed., Revised 1991 -.

• ONET.