Health, retirement, and paid leave benefits made up more than three-fifths of private industry employer-provided benefit costs in March 2012. Although employers in most states are not required to offer these benefits, they often make some form of each major benefit type available to their employees, especially to full-time and high-wage workers. For example, paid holidays are offered to 77 percent of private industry workers overall and about 90 percent of full-time and high-wage workers. Medical care and retirement benefit availability show similar patterns. This issue of BEYOND THE NUMBERS provides an overview of benefits for private industry workers, focusing on access to and participation in retirement, medical care, and paid leave benefits by various worker and establishment characteristics. The estimates of private industry benefit access, participation, and share of medical care premiums in this issue are from the “National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in the United States—March 2012,,” available online at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/sp/ebnr0018.pdf.