National Compensation Survey Research Articles

Removing workers’ compensation costs from the National Compensation Survey

This article focuses on workers’ compensation (WC), one of 18 employer-provided benefits for which information is collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) under the National Compensation Survey (NCS) program. The response rate for this legally required benefit is quite low both in absolute terms and relative to that for the other NCS benefits. The NCS is hindered in its ability to raise the response rate for workers’ compensation, given that such an effort could potentially lead to lower response rates for other benefits, which make up a larger share of total compensation. Other proposals to improve the quality of the collected data or to find alternative sources of data have limitations as well. As a result, BLS has decided that the best path forward is to work with the Office of Management and Budget to remove WC data from the NCS. This article explores the impact that a cessation of collection of workers’ compensation would have on NCS products.

Introducing Modeled Wage Estimates by grouped work levels

The Modeled Wage Estimates (MWE) provide annual estimates of average hourly wages for occupations by job characteristics and within a given geographical location. These estimates are produced by borrowing from the strength and breadth of the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) and National Compensation Survey (NCS) programs to provide more details on occupational wages than either program provides individually. Job characteristics refer to the attributes of workers within an occupation and include worker bargaining status (union and nonunion), work status (part-time and full-time), basis of pay (incentive-based or time-based), and work level (levels 1–15). In this article, we present experimental estimates calculated by grouping work-level data. Grouped level estimates may help researchers, human resources professionals, jobseekers, and other data users to get a better understanding of how pay varies for entry, intermediate, and experienced work levels.

A Model-Based Approach to Predict Employee Compensation Components

AbstractThe demand for official statistics at fine levels is motivating researchers to explore estimation methods that extend beyond the traditional survey-based estimation. For this work, the challenge originated with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, who conducts the National Compensation Survey to collect compensation data from a nationwide sample of establishments. The objective is to obtain predictions of the wage and non-wage components of compensation for a large number of employment domains defined by detailed job characteristics. Survey estimates are only available for a small subset of these domains. To address the objective, we developed a bivariate hierarchical Bayes model that jointly predicts the wage and non-wage compensation components for a large number of employment domains defined by detailed job characteristics. We also discuss solutions to some practical challenges encountered in implementing small area estimation methods in large-scale settings, including methods for defining the prediction space, for constructing and selecting the information that serves as model input, and for obtaining stable survey variance and covariance estimates.

Statistical data integration using multilevel models to predict employee compensation

AbstractThis article considers the case where two surveys collect data on a common variable, with one survey being much smaller than the other. The smaller survey collects data on an additional variable of interest, related to the common variable collected in the two surveys, and out‐of‐scope with respect to the larger survey. Estimation of the two related variables is of interest at domains defined at a granular level. We propose a multilevel model for integrating data from the two surveys, by reconciling survey estimates available for the common variable, accounting for the relationship between the two variables, and expanding estimation for the other variable, for all the domains of interest. The model is specified as a hierarchical Bayes model for domain‐level survey data, and posterior distributions are constructed for the two variables of interest. A synthetic estimation approach is considered as an alternative to the hierarchical modelling approach. The methodology is applied to wage and benefits estimation using data from the National Compensation Survey and the Occupational Employment Statistics Survey, available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, United States.

On the Cyclicality of Real Wages and Employment: New Evidence and Stylized Facts from Performance Pay and Fixed Wage Jobs

Abstract Using the National Compensation Survey between 2004 and 2017, we document four stylized facts and quantify cyclical heterogeneity among performance pay (PP) and fixed wage (FW) jobs. First, there is substantial dispersion in the incidence of PP, even within the same occupation; hourly compensation growth in PP jobs has been nearly three-times as large as that in FW jobs; the share of PP is increasing in employer size; the provision of PP is largely a firm-level decision. Second, we find that hourly compensation growth among PP (FW) jobs increases (decreases) in response to state employment growth. Furthermore, FW jobs respond primarily by adjusting the extensive margin of employment. Our estimates are identified off of comparisons of similar jobs within the same establishment over time. These business cycle dynamics are consistent with models that feature heterogeneity in organizational practices, allowing firms to adjust to uncertainty over the business cycle under flexibility in compensation contracts. (JEL J21, J22, J31, E32, M55).

Transplant social worker and donor financial assistance to increase living donor kidney transplants among African Americans: The TALKS Study, a randomized comparative effectiveness trial.

Lack of donors hinders living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) for African Americans. We studied the effectiveness of a transplant social worker intervention (TALK SWI) alone or paired with living donor financial assistance to activate African Americans' potential living kidney donors. African Americans (N=300) on the transplant waiting list were randomly assigned to usual care; TALK SWI; or TALK SWI plus Living Donor Financial Assistance. We quantified differences in live kidney donor activation (composite rate of live donor inquiries, completed new live donor evaluations, or live kidney donation) after 12months. Participants' mean age was 52years, 56% were male, and 43% had annual household income less than $40,000. Most previously pursued LDKT. Participants were highly satisfied with TALK social workers, but they rarely utilized Financial Assistance. After 12months, few (n=39, 13%) participants had a new donor activation event (35 [12%] new donor inquiries; 17 [6%] new donor evaluations; 4 [1%] LDKT). There were no group differences in donor activation events (subdistribution hazard ratio [95% CI]: 1.09 [0.51-2.30] for TALK SWI and 0.92 [0.42-2.02] for TALK SWI plus Financial Assistance compared to Usual Care, p=91). Alternative interventions to increase LDKT for African Americans on the waiting list may be needed. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02369354).

Mandated Sick Pay: Coverage, Utilization, and Welfare Effects

This paper evaluates the labor market effects of sick pay mandates in the United States. Using the National Compensation Survey and difference-in-differences models, we estimate their impact on coverage rates, sick leave use, labor costs, and non-mandated fringe benefits. Sick pay mandates increase coverage significantly by 13 percentage points from a baseline level of 66%. Newly covered employees take two additional sick days per year. We find little evidence that mandating sick pay crowds-out other non-mandated fringe benefits. We then develop a model of optimal sick pay provision along with a welfare analysis. Mandating sick pay likely increases welfare.

Mandated Sick Pay: Coverage, Utilization, and Welfare Effects

This paper evaluates the labor market effects of sick pay mandates in the United States. Using the National Compensation Survey and difference-in-differences models, we estimate their impact on coverage rates, sick leave use, labor costs, and non-mandated fringe benefits. Sick pay mandates increase coverage significantly by 13 percentage points from a baseline level of 66%. Newly covered employees take two additional sick days per year. We find little evidence that mandating sick pay crowds-out other non-mandated fringe benefits. We then develop a model of optimal sick pay provision along with a welfare analysis. Mandating sick pay likely increases welfare. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

California's Paid Leave Helped My Patient.

When a dedicated nurse gets cancer, California's paid leave policy allows her daughter to be at her side.

Affordable Care Act's Cadillac Tax Could Affect One-Fourth Of Workers With Employer Health Coverage By 2025.

The excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans (known as the Cadillac tax) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is an important part of the law's attempt to control rising health care costs. Analysts using different data sources have come to divergent estimates of how many people would be affected by this tax. We used the National Compensation Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is better suited to this analysis because of its law-relevant details on employer-provided health benefits. Our research clarifies an important area of empirical uncertainty, thereby informing the debate about the ACA and its proposed replacements. Our base estimate of impact, 12percent of workers participating in employer-provided health plans in 2020, lies in the middle of other estimates, but it is considerably more comprehensive, accurate, and delineated by worker characteristics (region, number of employees at the firm, industry, occupation, and so on) than others. Workers affected at the highest rate include those in education occupations and high-income workers, while those in industries involving manual labor and public safety are affected at some of the lowest rates.

Does Performance Payy Pay? Wage Flexibility Over the Great Recession

Using the National Compensation Survey between 2004-2017, we document three stylized facts and quantify cyclical heterogeneity among performance pay and fixed wage jobs. First, there is substantial dispersion in the incidence of performance pay, even within the same occupation; hourly compensation growth in performance pay job has been nearly three-times as large as that in fixed wage jobs; the share of performance pay is increasing in employer size. Second, we find that performance pay jobs respond primarily by adjusting the intensive margin of hourly compensation over the business cycle, whereas fixed wage jobs respond by adjusting the extensive margin of employment. Our estimates are identified off of comparisons of similar jobs within the same establishment over time. We provide suggestive evidence that performance pay allows firms to adjust more easily to uncertainty over the business cycle.

Wage and job-skill distributions in the National Compensation Survey

Wage and job-skill distributions in the National Compensation Survey

Health Insurance Costs and Employee Compensation: Evidence from the National Compensation Survey.

This paper examines the relationship between rising health insurance costs and employee compensation. I estimate the extent to which total compensation decreases with a rise in health insurance costs and decompose these changes in compensation into adjustments in wages, non-health fringe benefits, and employee contributions to health insurance premiums. I examine this relationship using the National Compensation Survey, a panel dataset on compensation and health insurance for a sample of establishments across the USA. I find that total hourly compensation reduces by $0.52 for each dollar increase in health insurance costs. This reduction in total compensation is primarily in the form of higher employee premium contributions, and there is no evidence of a change in wages and non-health fringe benefits. These findings show that workers are absorbing at least part of the increase in health insurance costs through lower compensation and highlight the importance of examining total compensation, and not just wages, when examining the relationship between health insurance costs and employee compensation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Survey estimation of domain means that respect natural orderings

AbstractMany variables in surveys follow natural orderings that should be respected in estimates of domain means. For instance the U.S. National Compensation Survey estimates mean wages for many job categories, and these mean wages are expected to be non‐decreasing according to job level. In this type of situation isotonic regression can be applied to give constrained estimators satisfying the monotonicity. We combine domain estimation and the pooled adjacent violators algorithm to construct new design‐weighted constrained estimators. The resulting estimator is the classical design‐based domain estimator but after adaptive pooling of neighbouring domains, so that it is both readily implemented in large‐scale surveys and easy to explain to data users. Under mild conditions on the sampling design and the population we obtain the asymptotic properties of the estimator. Simulation results also demonstrate improved point estimators and confidence intervals for domain means using linearization‐ and replication‐based variance estimation compared to survey estimators that do not incorporate the constraints. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 44: 431–444; 2016 © 2016 Statistical Society of Canada

Nonprofit pay and benefits: estimates from the National Compensation Survey

Nonprofit pay and benefits: estimates from the National Compensation Survey

Collective Bargaining and District Costs for Teacher Health Insurance: An Examination of the Data from the BLS and Wisconsin

District costs for teachers’ health insurance are, on average, higher then employer costs for private-sector professionals. How much of this is attributable to collective bargaining? This article examines the question using data from the National Compensation Survey (NCS) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the state of Wisconsin. In addition, the impact of collective bargaining on employer costs is decomposed into the impact on total premiums and the employer’s share of those premiums.

Compensation inequality: evidence from the National Compensation Survey

Compensation inequality: evidence from the National Compensation Survey

Automatic enrollment, employer match rates, and employee compensation in 401(k) plans

This study uses restricted-access employer-level microdata from the National Compensation Survey to examine the relationship between automatic enrollment and employee compensation. By boosting plan participation, automatic enrollment has the potential to increase employer defined contribution plan costs as previously unenrolled workers receive matching contributions. Using cross-sectional variation in employer compensation costs and the automatic enrollment provision within firms sponsoring DC plans, we examine differences in compensation between those with and without the provision. A significant negative correlation exists between the generosity of the employer match structure and the automatic enrollment provision. However, we find no evidence that total compensation costs or DC costs differ between firms with and without automatic enrollment, and no evidence that DC costs crowd out other forms of compensation.

The National Compensation Survey and the Affordable Care Act: preserving quality health care data

The National Compensation Survey and the Affordable Care Act: preserving quality health care data

Fiscally driven compensation reform and threats to human capital capacity in the public sector

Compensation systems serve a critical role in strategic human resources management, and over the past twenty-five years, there have been an increasing number of public sector reform efforts aimed at better aligning compensation practices with institutional workforce needs. While many past reforms have been performance driven, the nationʼs most recent economic downturn has served as potent catalyst for a renewed focus on public sector compensation, particularly reforms to public sector retirement benefits. However, given the traditional importance of public sector retirement benefits within broader bureaucratic structures, these new reforms hold the potential to substantially alter human capital capacity in the public sector. Using wage and retirement benefit data from the U.S. Census Bureauʼs Current Population Survey and National Compensation Survey, this paper finds that state and local governments face significant threats to their long-term human capital capacity in light of potential benefit reforms that place a disproportionate emphasis upon competitive wage rates.