[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 214 (Wednesday, November 5, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65706-65707]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-26278]
[[Page 65706]]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Proposed Collection, Comment Request
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to
reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a pre-clearance
consultation program to provide the general public and Federal agencies
with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing
collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (PRA95) [44 U.S.C. 3506(c) (2)(A)]. This program helps to
ensure that requested data can be provided in the desired format,
reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized,
collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of
collection requirements on respondents can be properly assessed. The
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is soliciting comments concerning the
proposed revision of the ``National Compensation Survey.'' A copy of
the proposed information collection request (ICR) can be obtained by
contacting the individual listed below in the Addresses section of this
notice.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the
Addresses section of this notice on or before January 5, 2015.
ADDRESSES: Send comments to Nora Kincaid, BLS Clearance Officer,
Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 4080,
2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE., Washington, DC 20212. Written comments
also may be transmitted by fax to 202-691-5111 (this is not a toll free
number.)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nora Kincaid, BLS Clearance Officer,
at 202-691-7628 (this is not a toll free number.) (See ADDRESSES
section.)
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The National Compensation Survey (NCS) is an ongoing survey of
earnings and benefits among private firms, State, and local government.
Data from the NCS program include estimates of wages covering broad
groups of related occupations, and data that directly link benefit plan
costs with detailed plan provisions. The NCS is used to produce the
Employment Cost Trends, including the Employment Cost Index (ECI) and
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), employee benefits data
(on coverage, cost and provisions), data used by the President's Pay
Agent and this data is used by compensation administrators and
researchers in the private sector. Data from the NCS are used to help
determine monetary policy (as a Principal Federal Economic Indicator.)
The integrated program's single sample produces both time-series
indexes and cost levels for industry and occupational groups, thereby
increasing the analytical potential of the data.
The NCS employs probability methods for selection of occupations.
This ensures that sampled occupations represent all occupations in the
workforce, while minimizing the reporting burden on respondents. The
survey collects data from a sample of employers. These data will
consist of information about the duties, responsibilities, and
compensation (earnings and benefits) for a sample of occupations for
each sampled employer.
Data will be updated on a quarterly basis. The updates will allow
for production of data on change in earnings and total compensation.
II. Current Action
Office of Management and Budget clearance is being sought for the
National Compensation Survey.
The NCS collects earnings and work level data on occupations for
the nation. The NCS also collects information on the cost, provisions,
and incidence of major employee benefits through its benefit cost and
benefit provision programs and publications.
BLS has for a number of years been using a revised approach to the
Locality Pay Survey (LPS); this uses data from two current BLS
programs--the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey and the
ECI program. This approach uses OES data to provide wage data by
occupation and by area, while ECI data are used to specify grade level
effects. This approach is also being used to extend the estimation of
pay gaps to areas that were not included in the prior Locality Pay
Survey sample, and these data have been delivered to the Pay Agent (in
2014, data for 92 areas were delivered.)
The NCS in September 2012 started reverting to a national survey
design in order to preserve the reliability of the ECI and the EBS. The
NCS private industry sample is on a three-year rotational cycle, with
one frozen sample year for the NCS private industry sample when a new
NCS State and local government sample starts collection in 2015.
The NCS continues to provide employee benefit provision and
participation data. These data include estimates of how many workers
receive the various employer-sponsored benefits. The data also include
information about the common provisions of benefit plans.
NCS collection will use eight forms (normally having unique private
industry and government initiation and update collection forms and
versions.) For NCS update collection, the forms or screens give
respondents their previously reported information, the dates they
expected change to occur to these data, and space for reporting these
changes.
The NCS for electronic collection uses a Web-based system (Web-
Lite) that allows NCS respondents, using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
encryption and the establishment's schedule number, to upload data
files to a secure BLS server and forwards those files to the assigned
BLS field economist. A new more interactive Web page system was
developed allowing respondents to further refine and break out the
detailed data they send NCS using this Web application.
III. Desired Focus of Comments
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is particularly interested in
comments that:
Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency,
including whether the information will have practical utility.
Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the
validity of the methodology and assumptions used.
Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected.
Minimize the burden of the collection of information on
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting
electronic submissions of responses.
Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Agency: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Title: National Compensation Survey.
OMB Number: 1220-0164.
Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit; not-for-profit
institutions; and State, local, and tribal government.
Total Respondents: 16,428 (three-year average).
Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $0.
[[Page 65707]]
Total Burden Cost (operating/maintenance): $0.
All figures in the table below are based on a three-year average.
The total respondents in the table are greater than the figure shown
above because many respondents are asked to provide information
relating to more than one form.
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Total
Form respondents Frequency Total annual Average Total hours
per form responses minutes
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Establishment collection form 532 1 532 54 479
(NCS Form 15-1G)...............
Establishment collection form 2247 1 2247 54 2022
(NCS Form 15-1P)...............
Earnings form (NCS Form 15-2G).. 532 1 532 20 177
Earnings form (NCS Form 15-2P).. 2247 1 2247 20 749
Wage Shuttle form computer 12226 4 48904 20 16301
generated earnings update form
#..............................
Benefits Collection Form (NCS 15- 532 1 532 180 1596
3G)............................
Benefits Collection Form (NCS 15- 2247 1 2247 180 6741
3P)............................
Summary of Benefits (Benefit 12226 4 48904 20 16301
update form SO-1003) is
computer generated #...........
Collection not tied to a 1423 .............. 3205 .............. 613
specific form (testing, Quality
Assurance/Quality Measurement,
etc.)..........................
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Totals...................... 34212 .............. 109350 .............. 44979
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** Collection forms can have multiple uses. The table above shows the average collection times for the
predominant uses of the forms. Record checks (for quality assurance and measurement) are done on a sub-sample
of respondents verifying responses for pre-selected sections of the collection forms.
# Includes IDCF form time (Web based screen for SSL encryption Web site secure.)
Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized
and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget
approval of the information collection request; they also will become a
matter of public record.
Signed at Washington, DC, this 30th day of October 2014.
Kimberley D. Hill,
Chief, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
[FR Doc. 2014-26278 Filed 11-4-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-P