United States Employment Benefits q/q

Employment Benefits q/q show changes in the amounts received by employees of US companies in addition to the base wages, in the given quarter compared to the previous one. The indicator is calculated based on a survey of employers.

Together with the employment wages, this indicator is included in the calculation of the Employment Cost Index. Employment benefits are divided into five categories in this survey:

• Paid leaves, such as holidays, weekends, sick leaves, personal annual leaves
• Bonuses, such as overtime work and incentive; increasing coefficients, bonuses not related directly to production (such as the thirteenth salary or a profit bonus)
• Insurance payments: life, health, short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Pension deductions and payments on savings programs
• Legally fixed payments, such as social security, medical insurance, unemployment insurance at the federal and state levels, compensation to employees

Economists interpret this indicator both as part of the labor cost index (as a leading indicator of inflation) and separately. The indicator itself is valuable, because it reflects the structure of insurance and pension payments, which allows insurance companies to evaluate their prospects and adjust the amounts of contracts. Representatives of business circles analyze additional payments and use them as a guide to adjust their own compensation costs.

Generally, growth of employment benefits leads to an increase in the final prices for products manufactured in the country and can therefore affect inflation. Inflation growth, in turn, is seen as positive for dollar quotes.