US Compensation of Employees · % of National Income

## What this measures

Compensation of employees (wages, salaries and employer contributions) as a share of U.S. national income, in percent, each quarter at seasonally adjusted annual rates: COE ÷ NICUR × 100, a Palanor calculation from BEA's national accounts. Q1 1947 to Q2 2026; each value is dated the first day of its quarter.

## Why it matters

The labor share of national income: how much of what the economy earns goes to people who work for pay. Its long drift and its swings over the cycle are central to debates over wages, inequality and automation.

## How to read it

59.7% in Q2 2026. In this record it ranges from 58.2% (Q2 1948) to 67.9% (Q2 1980). Read it with its counterpart: compensation and corporate profits together are most, not all, of national income.

## What it does not say

It leaves out the self-employed (proprietors' income), so it understates all labor income; it also counts executive pay and employer health premiums, which do not reach take-home pay.

## Source

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, NIPA Table 1.12 (national income by type of income), via FRED: NICUR, COE, CPROFIT. Public domain. Palanor calculation in src/lib/sovereign/us-fiscal.ts.