July 16, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Wages highest in West, benefits
highest in Northeast
In March 1999, workers in private
industry in the West received the highest wages and salaries per hour of any region. Wages
and salaries averaged $15.36 per hour in the West, compared to $15.08 in the Northeast,
$13.21 in the Midwest, and $12.55 in the South.
[Chart data—TXT]
However, the average cost of benefits was the highest in
the Northeast. Workers in the private sector in the Northeast were paid $5.86 per hour on
average in benefits in March 1999, which was $0.48 more per hour than the amount received
by workers in the West. Benefits per hour in the Northeast were $0.71 more per hour than
the average in the Midwest and $1.44 more per hour than in the South.
Total hourly compensation was actually highest in the Northeast, at $20.94 per hour, in
March 1999, even though wages and salaries per hour were greater in the West. The larger
benefits in the Northeastern region boosted total compensation to $0.20 per hour above the
average in the Western region. Compensation differences were much larger between the
Northeast and the other two regions—Northeastern workers received $2.58 more per hour
in compensation than those in the Midwest and $3.97 more per hour than those in the South.
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.
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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