The Institute for Compensation Studies™ (ICS) at Cornell University’s ILR School is an interdisciplinary center that researches, teaches and communicates about monetary and non-monetary rewards from work, and how these rewards influence outcomes for individuals, companies, industries, and economies.
2025 First Quarter Summary: Continue gains in workers’ real purchasing power, while private-sector benefit costs, particularly healthcare, are accelerating faster than wages.
2024 First Quarter Summary: Compensation growing outpacing inflation for the fourth straight quarter while wage growth moderates overall but accelerates for government and union workers, with health insurance costs beginning to rise again.
2023 Fourth Quarter Summary: Compensation growth easing to 4.2% but remaining above inflation for the third consecutive quarter, restoring workers’ purchasing power as private-sector pay growth cools while union compensation temporarily accelerates.
2023 Third Quarter Summary: Compensation growth falling from 4.5 percent in the Q2 2023 to 4.3 percent in Q3 but remained above inflation, allowing workers’ real compensation to begin recovering from the inflation-driven losses of 2020–2022.
2021 Fourth Quarter Summary: Annual compensation growth accelerates but continues to fall short of inflation; largest increases were in wages and salaries for private-sector workers, particularly for those in service occupations. Civilian workers’ compensation costs 12-month growth rate of 4.0 percent growth is the highest in 20 years.
2021 Third Quarter Summary: Annual compensation growth accelerates but falls far short of inflation; largest increases were in wages and salaries for private-sector workers and those in service occupations. Although varying by occupation and sectors, compensation witnesses record-high growth increase in 17 years.
2021 Second Quarter Summary: Annual compensation growth strengthens further, with largest increases for wages and salaries for private-sector workers in service occupations. Propelled by rising private sector compensation, ECI growth rate recovers to pre-pandemic level.
2021 First Quarter Summary: Annual compensation growth recovers further from pandemic effects. As ECI growth rate approaches pre-Covid pace, low-wage workers are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
2020 Fourth Quarter Summary: Annual compensation growth remains steady. Wage and salary growth in the public sector decelerates while the private sector growth gap widens among occupations.
2020 First Quarter Summary: Annual compensation growth remains steady despite worsening labor market conditions at the end of the quarter. While compensation growth stabilizes, the current ECI data has yet to document the full-fledged effect of Covid-19.
2019 Third Quarter Summary: Annual compensation growth strengthens, breaking pattern of softening growth over the last two quarters. ECI variation narrows across the country. As private sector growth drives the ECI trend, the accelerating growth in service jobs ends.
Employment Cost Index aligns with July’s BLS Employment Situation report, both signal steady recovery in the U.S. labor market, with emphasis on lower-paying jobs.
Deceleration in private sector health benefit cost index brings growth rate back to 1998 level. Meanwhile, private sector employment cost index is trending strongest in the South.
