[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 113 (Thursday, June 11, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35667-35668]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-12630]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Bureau of Labor Statistics


Information Collection Activities; Comment Request

AGENCY: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

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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. 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 extension of the ``National 
Compensation Survey.'' A copy of the proposed information collection 
request 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 August 10, 2020.

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 email to [email protected].

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 links 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), and data used by the 
President's Pay Agent. This data is used by compensation administrators 
and researchers in the public and private sectors. Data from the NCS 
are used to help in determining 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 a 
extension of the National Compensation Survey. This survey was revised 
to temporarily add questions to the National Compensation Survey to 
cover sick leave policy changes due to the coronavirus pandemic. These 
questions will be collected primarily through email in June and July of 
2020. These data were approved for collection under Emergency OMB 
Clearance Package 1220-0195, which expires on November 30, 2020. 
Respondents will electronically complete and submit responses through a 
simple fillable form. The additional sick leave policy questions are 
not intended to be collected beyond the July timeframe.
    At this time, BLS has discontinued in person data collection in 
response to the coronavirus pandemic. NCS will return to using in 
person interviews as a method of collection once restrictions are 
lifted. During this time, the NCS is relying heavily on telephone, 
email, and mail for current collection. Video interview collection is 
also available in response to the pandemic and is being considered as a 
standard collection method.
    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) 
component of the NCS; 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 2019, data for 
95 areas were delivered).

[[Page 35668]]

    The NCS has a national survey design for the ECI and the EBS. The 
NCS private industry sample is on a three-year rotational cycle, with 
one frozen sample year every ten years for the NCS private industry 
sample when a new NCS State and local government sample starts 
(approximately in 2025).
    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 a number of collection 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 that forwards those files to the assigned 
BLS field economist.
    Some benefits (called ``Other benefits'') data are collected to 
track the emergence of new or changing benefits over time. The BLS only 
asks whether sampled occupations receive these benefits and 
periodically modifies this list.

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.
    Title of Collection: National Compensation Survey.
    OMB Number: 1220-0164.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit; not-for-profit 
institutions; and State, local, and tribal government.
    Total Respondents: 15,863 (three-year average).
    All figures are based on a three-year average. The total responses 
are higher as some respondents are contacted multiple times.

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                                                                                          Average
                                                                       Respondents     responses per      Total # of        Average        Total hours
                                                                                            year          responses         minutes
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Three-year average.................................................           15863           3.1342           49,717          53.0736           43,978
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    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 5th day of June 2020.
Mark Staniorski,
Chief, Division of Management Systems.
[FR Doc. 2020-12630 Filed 6-10-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-P