May 22, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Compensation costs in State and local government, 1999
In March 1999, wages
and salaries averaged $19.78 per hour, or 70.6 percent of State and local
government compensation costs, whereas benefit costs averaged $8.22 or
29.4 percent.
[Chart data—TXT]
Insurance costs were the largest single component of benefit costs in
State and local government at 7.9 percent. Health insurance comprised most
of this figure. The share of compensation costs going to paid leave, at
7.8 percent, was very similar to the share going to insurance.
Retirement and savings accounted for 6.8 percent of benefit costs,
while legally required benefits claimed 5.9 percent. As in the private
sector, Social Security costs accounted for the majority of the cost of
legally required benefits.
These data are a product of the BLS Employment
Cost Trends program. Additional information is available from
"Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, 1986-99," (PDF
719K) BLS
Bulletin 2526.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
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