Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the NCS?
2. What are the differences between NCS occupational wage data and the Bureau's Occupation Employment Statistics Survey (OES) wage data?
3. How are occupations chosen and why?
4. How can you compare areas with differing mixtures of jobs?
5. Will data be available for the entire U.S.? What about regional data?
6. How can an employer use NCS data to set pay?
7. What areas do you survey?

1) What is the NCS?

The NCS is a BLS establishment survey of employee salaries, wages, and benefits. The survey is designed to produce data at local levels, within broad regions, and nationwide. The NCS will replace 3 existing BLS surveys: Employment Cost Index (ECI), Occupational Compensation Survey Program (OCSP), and Employee Benefits Survey (EBS).

2) What are the differences between NCS occupational wage data and the Bureau's Occupation Employment Statistics Survey (OES) wage data?

Differences between the National Compensation Survey (NCS) and the Occupation Employment Statistics Survey (OES):

• Both of these surveys provide information on wages and salaries by occupation but they have different strengths.
• The OES survey provides earnings on an hourly and annual basis, including mean and median earnings for all areas — national, State, and MSAs — as well as 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentile wage rate estimates for the nation. The NCS survey also provides mean earnings on an hourly and annual basis for all surveys and earnings distributions by the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles for some surveys. The OES is the larger survey and can provide a greater range of occupations and areas, while the NCS is conducted by personal visit and can provide greater depth by obtaining occupational work level.

• The OES provides information for more different occupations (about 700 occupational classifications compared with about 450 occupational classifications in the NCS). The NCS, on the other hand, provides information on the wages for the occupations it covers at specific levels of work, rather than just an average for all workers in the occupation.
• The OES provides information for the nation, for states, and for all metropolitan areas, as well as for DC, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. The NCS provides information for the nation, for 81 metropolitan areas and 73 non-metropolitan counties representing the U.S. and for the 9 Census divisions (although not all areas have information for all occupations).

• If you want wage data for pay-setting purposes, and want to set pay according to the level of work that is being performed, the NCS is the better choice. If you need to know the general wage profile for a large number of occupations in a large number of areas, the OES is the better choice. If you need information by state, you will need to use the OES.
• Both surveys include both full- and part-time workers who are paid a wage or salary. The NCS obtains actual work schedules from the establishment, while the OES assumes standardized schedules. Thus, if you need information on occupations in which the work schedule is atypical, you need to exercise caution in using the OES.
• Both surveys exclude agriculture, fishing and forestry industries and private household workers; the NCS also excludes the federal government, while the OES includes federal civilian employment except for some national security agencies.
• The NCS data are available at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/compub.htm and the OES data are available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/.

3) How are occupations chosen and why?

Occupations are chosen through probability selection. Probability selection of occupations (PSO) is designed to obtain a statistically representative sample of occupations for both a survey area and nationwide. The resulting data are weighted to represent all workers without bias. This PSO method allows for the possibility of publishing data for any job group, not just for those jobs on a preset list. NOTE: One of PSO limitations is that not all jobs published in one area will necessarily publish in another area.

4) How can you compare areas with differing mixtures of jobs?

The methodology for using NCS data for place to place comparisons is still being developed. Collection timing is being planned so that data representing the same reference period will be available from all major metropolitan areas, thus allowing comparisons of data from the same time period. In each of these areas, wage data will be published for all workers, for workers by occupation or occupational groups, as well as for workers by generic level factors. Comparisons will be made for some or all of these categories.

5) Will data be available for the entire U.S.? What about regional data?

Yes, we have national NCS data in a summary report and in a bulletin on the Web — see List of published NCS areas for links to these publications. Data for the 9 Census regions (New England, Middle Atlantic, East South Central, South Atlantic, East North Central, West North Central, West South Central, Mountain, and Pacific) will be issued soon.

6) How can an employer use NCS data to set pay?

Publication of mean and median wages for occupations and for occupational groups in an area can be used by employers to determine how their pay for an occupation compares with that of the area. If certain employer occupations are not published, data on "benchmark occupations" — those occupations that may be common in a number of establishments — may be used to compare an employer's pay to pay in the area.

7) What areas do you survey?

List of published areas can be found at: http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/compub.htm

Last Modified Date: August 26, 2004

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