United States Employment Cost Index

Last Release

Mar 31, 2025

Actual

0.9

Units In

0.9

Frequency

Quarterly

Next Release

Jul 31, 2025

Time to Release

2 Months 29 Days 12 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
2 Sep 1982	0.2 Jun 2015	0.85 %	1982-2025	U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Employment Cost Index measures the growth of employee compensation (wages and benefits). The ECI is based on a survey of employer payrolls in the final month of each quarter. The index tracks movement in the cost of labor, including wages, fringe benefits and bonuses for employees at all levels of a company.

Latest Updates

Compensation costs for civilian workers in the United States increased 0.9% in the first quarter of 2025, the same as in the previous period, as expected. Wages and salaries increased 0.8%, easing from a 1% rise in Q4, while benefit costs increased 1.2%, up from 0.8%. Compensation costs slowed in the private sector (0.8% vs 0.9%) and state and local government (0.9% vs 1.1%). On an annual basis, compensation costs rose by 3.6% in the first quarter, compared to a 3.8% advance in the preceding period.