June 20, 2002
(The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Average compensation $23.15 per hour in March
In March 2002, employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers in the United States averaged $23.15 per hour worked.
[Chart data—TXT]
Wages and salaries, which averaged $16.76, accounted for 72.4 percent of these costs, while benefits, which averaged $6.39, accounted for the remaining 27.6 percent.
Legally required benefits were $1.80 per hour on average, representing the largest non-wage employer cost.
Employer costs for insurance benefits were $1.61 per hour, paid leave
benefits were $1.59 per hour, and retirement and savings benefits 80 cents
per hour.
These
data are a product of the BLS
Employment Cost
Trends program. Additional
information is available from
"Employer
Costs for Employee Compensation,
March 2002," news release USDL 02-346. Civilian workers include private industry and State and local
government workers.
Note:
The publication schedule for the "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation"
news release will change this year. Future
publications will be issued on a quarterly basis, with data collected for
the pay period including the 12th day of the survey months of
March, June, September, and December. Publications will be issued approximately three months after the
month of reference. Data will
be available on a quarterly basis beginning with June 2002 data.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »