Compensation Highlights in Education and Health Services Industries By RICHARD WORKS and ELI STOLTZFUS
F
rom elementary schools to universities, from outpatient health care services to hospitals and social assistance, the education and health services industries make up a large portion of employment in the United States. In this article, we’ll look at wages and employee benefits for workers in education and health services industries in the private industry. The benefits reviewed in this issue are: paid holidays, paid vacation, paid sick leave, medical care benefits, and retirement. The data presented are the annual rate of change in total employer compensation costs, the employer costs per hour worked and percent of total compensation for the select benefits, and the rate of access to and participation in the select benefits. These data are from March 2017 publications from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Employment Costs and Variations The Employment Cost Index (ECI) is a leading U.S. economic indicator used by the Federal Reserve Board for making fiscal policy decisions, and by private industry organizations for compensation escalation. It measures quarterly percent changes in total compensation costs, as well as the cost changes for the various components of total compensation. The data shown in Chart 1 indicates that the change in total compensation from March 2001 to March 2017 for education and health services industries was a 57.14 percent decline from 4.9%, and a 45.24 percent decline for all private industry workers from 4.2%. In March 2017, however, total compensation costs increased at an annual rate of 2.1 percent for education and health services industries, and the annual rate increased 2.3 percent for all private industry workers. Superimposing private industry on education and health services shows that education and health services may follow a lag, suggesting that changes in compensation costs might move slower in the education and health services industries when compared against the private industry as a whole.
The employer costs for employee compensation (ECEC) data estimates show the employer costs per hour worked for the various components of compensation, as well as the percent of total compensation that each component makes up. There is a significant difference between the hourly wages and salaries costs between the private industry and the education and health services industries. Although there is no significant difference in the overall hourly benefits costs between the private industry and the education and health services, differences between the benefits do exists. In March 2017, private industry averaged $2.30 per hour worked for paid leave compared to $2.74 for education and health services. This is also seen in insurance: the education and health services industries had a higher costs for insurance when compared to the private industry as a whole. However, there was no significant difference for retirement costs between the private industry and the education and health services industries (see Table 1).
Table 1. Employer costs per employee hour worked and percent of total compensation for paid leave, insurance, and retirement and savings benefits, private industry, March 2017 Industry group
Total compensation cost
Wages and salaries cost
All private industry workers $33.11 $23.06 Education and health services $35.00 $24.59 industries Education services $44.31 $32.05 Health care and social $33.46 $23.35 assistance Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey.
$10.06
Retirement and savings Cost Percent Cost Percent Cost Percent $2.30 6.9% $2.65 8.0% $1.34 4.0%
$10.42
$2.74
7.8%
$3.03
8.6%
$12.26
$3.17
7.2%
$3.64
$10.11
$2.67
8.0%
$2.93
Benefits cost
‌the change in total compensation from March 2001 to March 2017 for education and health services industries was a 57.14 percent decline from 4.9%, and a 45.24 percent decline for all private industry workers from 4.2%. 42
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Paid leave
Insurance
$1.47
4.2%
8.2%
$2.11
4.8%
8.7%
$1.36
4.1%