Employment Cost Index Law & Legal Definition

Employment cost index is a quarterly measure of changes in labor costs. It is one of the main economic indicators used by the Federal Reserve Bank. The following are some of the main features of the data:

  • Shows changes in wages and salaries and benefit costs, as well as changes in total compensation
  • Presents data as a total for all workers and separately for private industry and for State and local government workers
  • Reports compensation changes by industry, occupational group, union and nonunion status, region, and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan status
  • Provides seasonally adjusted and unadjusted data
  • Presents historical data on changes in labor costs
  • Uses fixed weights to control for shifts among occupations and industries