Total compensation for U.S. workers averages $27.42 per hour

Private industry employers spent an average of $27.42 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on March 10. Wages and salaries averaged $19.41 per hour worked and accounted for 70.8 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $8.00 and accounted for the remaining 29.2 percent. Total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $39.60 per hour worked in December 2009. Total employer compensation costs for civilian workers, which include private industry and state and local government workers, averaged $29.37 per hour worked in December 2009.

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), a product of the National Compensation Survey, measures employer costs for wages, salaries and employee benefits for non-farm private and state and local government workers.

Private industry employer costs for paid leave benefits averaged $1.86 per hour worked. Private industry paid leave benefit costs were highest for management, professional and related occupations, $4.05 per hour, or 8.4 percent of total compensation, in December 2009. Costs were lowest among service occupations, 58 cents or 4.2 percent of total compensation. Included in this amount were employer costs for vacations, holidays, sick leave and personal leave. Paid leave benefit costs are often directly linked to wages; therefore, higher paid occupations or industries will typically show higher estimates for this compensation component.

Civilian
Civilian employer costs averaged $2.54 per hour worked for insurance benefits (life, health and disability insurance), or 8.7 percent of total compensation. In addition to insurance, the other benefit categories were: paid leave (vacation, holiday, sick leave and personal leave), which averaged $2.04 (6.9 percent of total compensation); supplemental pay (overtime and premium, shift differentials and nonproduction bonuses), which averaged 74 cents per hour worked (2.5 percent); retirement and savings, which averaged $1.29 per hour (4.4 percent); and legally required benefits (Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation), which averaged $2.27 per hour worked (7.7 percent).

Private industry
Private industry employer costs for paid leave averaged $1.86 per hour worked (6.8 percent of total compensation), supplemental pay averaged 82 cents (3.0 percent), insurance benefits averaged $2.15 (7.8 percent), retirement and savings averaged 92 cents (3.4 percent) and legally required benefits averaged $2.25 (8.2 percent) per hour worked.

Paid leave costs in private industry
Employer cost for paid leave benefits averaged $2.71 per hour worked for union workers, significantly higher than the $1.76 per hour average for nonunion workers.

Paid leave costs in goods-producing industries were $2.08, greater than the average for service-providing industries, $1.81, in December 2009. The average cost per hour worked for paid leave in service-providing industries ranged from $3.83 in information to 38 cents in leisure and hospitality.

Among the nine census divisions, paid leave costs ranged from $2.49 in the New England division to $1.30 in the East South Central division.

Paid leave costs varied widely by establishment size in private industry. Paid leave costs for establishments with fewer than 100 workers were $1.26 per hour worked versus $1.93 for establishments with 100 to 499 employees and $3.37 with 500 employees or more.

Legally required benefits costs in private industry
The average cost for legally required benefits was $2.25 per hour worked in private industry (8.2 percent of total compensation) in December 2009. Legally required benefits costs are often directly linked to wages; therefore, higher paid occupations or industries will typically show higher estimates for this compensation component.

Employer costs for legally required benefits varied by occupation, industry, bargaining status and establishment size. The average cost per hour worked for legally required benefits ranged from $3.36 per hour worked for management, professional and related occupations to service occupations at $1.38 per hour. The proportion of total compensation represented by legally required benefits ranged from 10.2 percent for natural resources, construction and maintenance workers to 7.0 percent for management, professional and related workers.

Read the full report and view all of the data tables by clicking on the link below:

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm