Moderate Increase in Wage Costs Likely

Wage, salary and benefit costs are likely to have increased at a restrained pace during the first quarter, analysts predict. The Labor Department’s employment cost index, or ECI, due Thursday, probably rose 0.8% in the first three months of 1999. That’s just above the fourth quarter’s 0.7% increase. The ECI is considered one of the most accurate measures of wages, salaries and benefits as it measures the cost to companies of employing a given worker at a given time, with adjustments to spread cost increases over the course of a year.