June 29, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Benefits nearly a third of compensation in manufacturing

Health insurance, paid leave, Social Security, and other benefits together accounted for close to a third of the compensation received by manufacturing employees in March 1999. Legally required benefits such as Social Security were the largest of all the benefits.

[Chart data—TXT]

Overall, 31.2 percent of manufacturing compensation in March 1999 was in the form of benefits. Social Security and other legally required benefits represented 8.5 percent of total compensation. Paid leave accounted for 7.6 percent of compensation in manufacturing and health insurance for 6.9 percent.

In contrast, workers in industries outside of manufacturing received only about a quarter of their compensation in benefits. In March 1999, benefits comprised 25.9 percent of nonmanufacturing compensation. The percent of compensation from legally required benefits was slightly higher in nonmanufacturing than in manufacturing, at 8.7 percent. For each of the other benefits in the chart, the percent was lower for nonmanufacturing workers.

These data are a product of the BLS Employment Cost Trends program. Additional information is available from "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, March 1999," news release USDL 99-173. Figures in chart do not sum to 100.0 percent due to rounding.