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Media Contact: FOR RELEASE: 10:00 A.M. EDT
(202) 691-5902 THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2009
Internet address:
http://www.bls.gov/ect
EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION-DECEMBER 2008
Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $29.18 per hour worked in
December 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and
salaries, which averaged $20.37, accounted for 69.8 percent of these costs, while benefits, which
averaged $8.81, accounted for the remaining 30.2 percent. (See table 1.) Employer costs for legally
required benefits averaged $2.27, or 7.8 percent of total compensation per hour worked in December 2008.
Legally required benefits--which include Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment
insurance, and workers’ compensation--is only one of several benefit categories included in Employer
Costs for Employee Compensation, along with wages and salaries. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation
is a product of the National Compensation Survey, which measures employer costs for wages and salaries,
and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and local government workers.
Employer costs for insurance benefits--life, health, and disability--averaged $2.45 per hour (8.4
percent of total compensation). Paid leave benefits (vacations, holidays, sick leave, and personal)
averaged $2.06 (7.1 percent); retirement and savings averaged $1.29 (4.4 percent); and supplemental pay
averaged 74 cents (2.5 percent) per hour worked.
Private industry
In December 2008, private industry employer compensation costs averaged $27.35 per hour worked.
Wages and salaries averaged $19.37 (70.8 percent), while benefits averaged $7.98 (29.2 percent). Employer
costs for legally required benefits averaged $2.26 (8.3 percent) per hour worked, insurance benefits averaged
$2.09 (7.6 percent), paid leave averaged $1.85 (6.8 percent), retirement and savings averaged 96 cents
(3.5 percent), and supplemental pay averaged 81 cents (3.0 percent). (See table 5.)
Legally required benefit costs in private industry
The average cost for legally required benefits was $2.26 per hour worked in private industry (8.3 percent
of total compensation) in December 2008. Legally required benefit costs are often directly linked to
wages; therefore, higher paid occupations or industries will typically show higher estimates for this
compensation component.
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Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Data Series
Effective with this release, compensation data aggregated across all metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas--
which previously appeared in Table 7--have been discontinued as a result of classification changes to metropolitan
statistical areas.
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Employer costs for legally required benefits varied by occupation, industry, bargaining status, region,
and establishment size. The average cost per hour worked for legally required benefits ranged from $1.36 per
hour worked for service occupations to $3.38 per hour for management, professional, and related occupations.
The proportion of total compensation represented by legally required benefits ranged from 7.0 percent for
management, professional, and related workers to 10.3 percent for natural resources, construction, and
maintenance workers. (See table 5.)
Employer costs for legally required benefits were significantly higher for union workers, $3.11 per hour,
than for nonunion workers, $2.16 per hour. As a proportion of total compensation, legally required benefits
accounted for 8.6 percent of total compensation for union workers, compared with 8.2 percent for nonunion
workers. (See table 5.)
Costs for legally required benefits were higher in goods-producing industries ($2.90 per hour, or 9.0 percent
of total compensation) than in service-providing industries ($2.11 per hour, or 8.0 percent of total compensation).
Within goods-producing industries, construction averaged $3.48 per hour worked (11.2 percent), higher than in
manufacturing, at $2.60 per hour (8.2 percent). For workers’ compensation, a component of legally required
benefits, costs were $1.42 per hour in construction, significantly higher than in manufacturing, at 57 cents per
hour. Legally required benefit costs in service-providing industries ranged from $1.26 per hour for the leisure
and hospitality industry (10.6 percent) to $2.86 for the information industry (7.1 percent). (See table 6.)
Among the four census regions, employer costs for legally required benefits ranged from $1.95 in the South
to $2.58 per hour in the Northeast. Legally required benefit costs were $2.18 in the Midwest, less than in the
West, which was $2.55. Within the nine census divisions, costs for legally required benefits ranged from $1.78
in the East South Central division, to $2.71 in the Pacific division. (See table 7.)
Legally required benefit costs increased in average dollar amount per hour with establishment size. In
establishments with fewer than 100 employees, average hourly costs were $2.03, less than the cost of $2.50 in
establishments with 100 employees or more. Legally required benefit costs in establishments with fewer than
50 employees averaged 9.0 percent of total compensation, and in establishments with 500 workers or more,
7.2 percent. (See table 8.)
Paid leave benefit costs in private industry
Employer costs for paid leave benefits were highest for management, professional, and related occupations,
$4.09 per hour, or 8.4 percent of total compensation, in December 2008. Costs were lowest among service
occupations, 57 cents or 4.3 percent of total compensation. (See table 5.) 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. For information on paid leave provisions, see the National Compensation Survey: Employee
Benefits in the United States, March 2008 at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2008/benefits.htm.
Employer cost for paid leave benefits averaged $2.65 per hour worked for union workers, significantly higher
than the $1.76 per hour average for nonunion workers. (See table 5.)
Paid leave costs in goods-producing industries were $2.05 (6.4 percent of total compensation), greater than
the average for service-providing industries, $1.81 (6.9 percent of total compensation) in December 2008.
(See table 6.)
Among the nine census divisions, paid leave costs ranged from $1.26 in the East South Central division, to
$2.47 in the New England division. (See table 7.)
Paid leave benefits costs increased, both in average dollar amount and as a proportion of total compensation,
with establishment size. Establishments with fewer than 100 workers averaged $1.24 per hour (5.5 percent);
significantly less than those with 100 workers or more, $2.52 per hour (7.8 percent). (See table 8).
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NOTE:
The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for March 2009 is scheduled to be released Wednesday, June 10, 2009,
at 10:00 A.M. EDT.
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Table of Contents:
Table 1. Civilian workers, by major occupational and industry group 6
Table 2. Civilian workers, by occupational and industry group 8
Table 3. State and local government workers, by major occupational
and industry group 9
Table 4. State and local government workers, by occupational and
industry group 10
Table 5. Private industry workers, by major occupational group and
bargaining unit status 11
Table 6. Private industry workers, by major industry group 13
Table 7. Private industry workers, by census region and division 15
Table 8. Private industry workers, by establishment employment size 18
Table 9. Private industry workers, goods-producing and
service-providing industries, by occupational group 19
Table 10. Private industry workers, by industry group 20
Table 11. Private industry workers, by occupational group and
full-time and part-time status 21
Table 12. Private industry workers, by industry group and full-time
and part-time status 22
Table 13. Private industry workers, by major industry group and
establishment employment size and bargaining unit status 23
Table 14. Private industry health care and social assistance workers,
by industry and occupational group 24
Technical Note 25
Note: Supplemental tables with occupational, establishment size, and bargaining status series for detailed
industries are available at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/sp/ecsuptc9.pdf and http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/sp/ecsuptc9.txt.
