P.M. BRIEFING : Wages, Benefits Rise 4.5% in Year

WASHINGTON — Wages, salaries and other benefits paid to American workers rose 4.5% in the 12 months ending in June, the government reported today.

The Labor Department said its Employment Cost Index, considered one of the best gauges of inflationary wage pressures, was pushed ahead both by rising wage costs and higher benefit costs. Wage pressures have intensified every quarter since June of 1988, when the Employment Cost Index rose above the 4% level for the first time.

In another sign of higher wage pressures, the Labor Department said today that major collective bargaining settlements reached in the first six months of 1989 provided average wage increases of 3.7% in the first year of the contract, up from a 2.1% average first-year increase the last time these contracts were negotiated.