[Excerpt] The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) National Compensation Survey (NCS) is the key source of data on the pay and benefits of workers in the United States. The NCS uses data on employer costs for a variety of compensation components to produce the Employer Cost Index (ECI) and Employer Cost of Employee Compensation (ECEC) on a quarterly basis. The ECI provides an index of changes in the employer’s cost of wages and compensation from the prior quarter and prior year. The ECEC provides estimates of wages and salaries as well as average cost of benefits per hour worked, shown in dollars and cents. On an annual basis, the NCS produces information on the availability of a suite of benefits, including health, retirement, insurance, and leave as part of the Employee Benefits Survey (EBS). This Beyond the Numbers article examines pay and benefits by job level to provide additional context to the nature of compensation among private sector workers in the United States.