January 22, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Benefits share of compensation
costs changed little from 1986 to 1998
In March 1998, employer costs for employee
compensation averaged $18.50 per hour for private industry workers. The compensation
package broke down to $13.47 per hour for wages and $5.02 per hour for benefits. The
proportion of compensation spent on benefits was about 27 percent—a share that has
changed little over the past 12 years.
[Chart data—TXT]
From 1986 to 1998, the proportion of compensation accounted for by
benefits costs has held within the narrow range of 27 to 29 percent. The higher figure was
reported in 1993 and 1994, when increases in the cost of health insurance and
legally-required benefits, notably workers compensation, pushed the benefits share higher.
Legally-required benefits, including Social Security, were the largest component of
benefit costs at about 9 percent. Other benefits with high relative cost shares were paid
leave and insurance (mostly health care), each at roughly 6 percent in 1998.
These data are a product of the BLS Employment
Cost Trends program. Additional information is available from the
bulletin, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, 1986-98
(PDF 1,092K).
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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 »
