[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:
    <bullet> 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.
    <bullet> 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.
    <bullet> Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected.
    <bullet> 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.

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    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