Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Friday, March 17, 2023			               USDL-23-0488

Technical information:	(202) 691-6199  *  ncsinfo@bls.gov  *  www.bls.gov/eci
Media contact:		(202) 691-5902  *  pressoffice@bls.gov


                       EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION - December 2022
                       
Total employer compensation costs for civilian workers averaged $42.48 per hour worked in
December 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries cost 
employers $29.32 and accounted for 69.0 percent of total costs, while benefits cost $13.17 and 
accounted for the remaining 31.0 percent. (See table 1.)

Total employer compensation costs for state and local government averaged $57.60 per hour worked. 
Wages and salaries averaged $35.69 per hour worked and represented 62.0 percent of total 
compensation costs, while benefit costs averaged $21.91 and accounted for the remaining 38.0 
percent. (See tables 1 and 3.)

Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $40.23 per hour worked. 
Wage and salary costs averaged $28.37 and accounted for 70.5 percent of employer costs, while 
benefit costs were $11.86 and accounted for 29.5 percent. (See tables 1 and 4.)

Retirement and savings costs for private industry workers averaged $1.36 per hour worked in 
December 2022 and accounted for 3.4 percent of total compensation costs. Retirement and savings 
costs for state and local government workers averaged $7.48 per hour worked in December 2022 and 
accounted for 13.0 percent of total compensation costs. Defined benefit costs averaged $0.41 per 
hour worked for private industry workers and $6.98 per hour worked for state and local government 
workers. Defined contribution costs averaged $0.95 per hour worked for private industry workers and 
$0.51 per hour worked for state and local government workers. (See table 1.)

Private industry retirement and savings costs

Among private industry supersectors, the leisure and hospitality industry had the lowest employer 
retirement and savings costs at $0.18 per hour worked. Among the benefit components within the 
leisure and hospitality industry, legally required benefits accounted for 9.5 percent of total 
compensation and had the highest employer costs at $1.74 per hour worked. (See table 4.)

Retirement and savings costs for union workers averaged $4.62 per hour worked and accounted for 
8.5 percent of total compensation costs. Retirement and savings costs for nonunion workers 
averaged $1.07 per hour worked and accounted for 2.7 percent of total compensation costs. Defined 
benefit costs averaged $2.98 per hour worked for union workers and $0.18 per hour worked for 
nonunion workers. Defined contribution costs averaged $1.64 per hour worked for union workers and 
$0.89 per hour worked for nonunion workers. (See table 5 and www.bls.gov/eci/data.htm.)

Retirement and savings costs for workers in establishments with 1-49 workers averaged $0.71 per 
hour worked and accounted for 2.2 percent of total compensation. Retirement and savings costs for 
workers in establishments with 500 workers or more averaged $2.84 per hour worked and accounted for 
4.9 percent of total compensation. (See table 6.)

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for March 2023 is scheduled to be released on
Friday, June 16, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. (ET).

                                          
                                          TECHNICAL NOTE
                                          
Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), a product of the National Compensation Survey,
provides the average employer cost for wages and salaries as well as benefits per hour worked. 
The ECEC covers the civilian economy, which includes data from both private industry and state 
and local government. Federal government workers are excluded. Additionally, the self-employed,
private household workers, and the agricultural sector are excluded from private industry.

Total benefit costs consist of five major categories and include 18 benefit costs:
* Paid leave - vacation, holiday, sick, and personal leave; 
* Supplemental pay - overtime and premium, shift differentials, and nonproduction bonuses; 
* Insurance - life, health, short-term and long-term disability; 
* Retirement and savings - defined benefit and defined contribution; and 
* Legally required benefits - Social Security [refers to Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability
  Insurance (OASDI) program], Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, and workers’
  compensation.

All workers are included in the benefit cost estimates including those that do not have plan access
or do not participate. Costs are also affected by other factors such as cost sharing between
employers and employees, plan features, and plan generosity. For the latest information on the
percentage of workers with access to and participating in employer-sponsored benefit plans,
including health care and retirement and savings plans, see www.bls.gov/ebs.

The National Compensation Measures provides additional details on the sample design, calculation
methodology, and resources explaining changes over time, see www.bls.gov/opub/hom/ncs/home.htm.

Sample size
Data for this reference period were collected from a probability sample of approximately 28,100 
occupational observations selected from a sample of about 7,000 private industry establishments
and approximately 7,600 occupational observations selected from a sample of about 1,400 state and
local government establishments that provided data at the initial interview. Beginning December 
2021, an additional (fourth) private industry sample is used in estimation to mitigate the impact
of decreasing response rates.

Measures of reliability
Relative standard errors (RSEs) provide users a tool to ascertain the quality of an estimate to
ensure that it is within an acceptable range for their intended purpose. RSEs are available at
www.bls.gov/web/ecec/ecec-rse.htm and the database query tool at www.bls.gov/eci/data.htm.

Comparisons
Compensation cost levels in state and local government should not be directly compared with levels
in private industry. Differences between these sectors stem from factors such as variation in work
activities and occupational structures.

Classification systems
The National Compensation Survey publishes estimates of compensation costs and trends as well as
benefit coverage by ownership, industry group, occupational group, and geographic areas, see
www.bls.gov/eci/factsheets/national-compensation-survey-classification-systems-mapping-files.htm.

Additional information
Additional and historical ECEC estimates are available in the ECEC database query tool at 
www.bls.gov/eci/data.htm and in xlsx format at www.bls.gov/eci/tables.htm. The 2023 ECEC 
release schedule is available at www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/ecec.htm. Subscribe to receive 
the BLS Economic News Release email at public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDOLBLS/subscriber/new. 

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