Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Thursday, December 16, 2021			               USDL-21-2146

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

                    
(NOTE: This news release was reissued on December 17, 2021, correcting data in table 4, 
see www.bls.gov/errata.)

                       EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION – September 2021
			
Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $39.55 per hour worked in
September 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wage and salary costs averaged
$27.35 per hour worked or 69.1 percent of total compensation, while benefit costs were $12.20 or
30.9 percent of total compensation. (See table 1.)

Private industry worker compensation costs for employers averaged $37.24 per hour worked in
September 2021. Wage and salary costs averaged $26.36 and accounted for 70.8 percent of employer
costs, while benefit costs averaged $10.88 and accounted for 29.2 percent of total compensation.
(See table 1.)

State and local government worker compensation costs for employers averaged $54.46 per hour worked
in September 2021. Wage and salary costs averaged $33.76 and accounted for 62.0 percent of employer
costs. Benefit costs averaged $20.70 and accounted for the remaining 38.0 percent of total
compensation. (See table 1.) 

Compensation costs in state and local government

Occupational group
Among state and local government occupational groups, total compensation costs ranged from $37.83
per hour worked in sales and office occupations to $65.22 in management, professional, and related
occupations. Workers in sales and office occupations and service occupations had over 40 percent of
their compensation attributed to benefit costs. (See table 3.)

Industry group
Among state and local government industry groups, total compensation costs averaged $52.52 per hour
worked in public administration and $56.84 in education and health services. Wages and salaries
were $32.02 in hospitals and $40.54 in junior colleges, colleges, and universities. Total
compensation costs for elementary and secondary schools industry workers averaged $56.90 per hour
worked. (See table 3.)

Retirement and savings
Of the five major benefit costs, the retirement and savings component was the costliest for state
and local government employers, constituting 12.6 percent of total compensation per hour worked.
Defined benefit costs were $6.41 per hour worked (11.8 percent of total compensation), and defined
contribution costs were $0.47 per hour worked (0.9 percent). (See table 3.)

Insurance
Insurance employer cost per hour worked in state and local government was $6.28 (11.5
percent of total compensation)in September 2021. Health insurance, which was the most expensive 
insurance component, cost employers $6.12 (11.2 percent). Life insurance cost was $0.08
(0.1 percent), long-term disability cost was $0.05 (0.1 percent), and short-term disability was
$0.03 per hour worked (0.1 percent). (See table 3.)

Paid leave
Paid leave employer cost per hour worked in state and local government was $4.04 (7.4 percent of
total compensation) in September 2021. Paid vacation, which was the largest component of paid leave
employer costs, was $1.53 (2.8 percent). Other paid leave costs were $1.14 (2.1 percent) for paid
holiday leave, $1.04 (1.9 percent) for sick leave, and $0.32 per hour worked (0.6 percent) for
personal leave. (See table 3.)
 _________________________________________________________________________________________________
|              Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Impact on September 2021 ECEC Data                 |
| The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) reference date was September 12, 2021.      |
| Response rates for September were comparable with prior releases, and no changes in estimation  |
| procedures were necessary. Additional information is available at www.bls.gov/covid19/home.htm. |
|_________________________________________________________________________________________________|

                                          
                                          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. Excluded from private industry are the self-employed, agricultural
workers, and private household workers. Federal government workers are excluded from the public
sector.

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.
Additional ECEC estimates, including historical data, are available in the ECEC database query tool
at www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/data.htm.

Sample size
Data for this reference period were collected from a probability sample of approximately 23,400
occupational observations selected from a sample of about 5,900 private industry establishments and
approximately 7,700 occupational observations selected from a sample of about 1,400 state and local
government establishments that provided data at the initial interview.

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 database query tool at www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/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/ncs/national-compensation-survey-classification-systems-mapping-files.htm.

Additional information
Historical tables are available in (xlsx) format for civilian workers, private industry workers,
state and local government workers, and metropolitan areas, see 
www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/notices/new-ecec-historical-tables.htm. The 2021 ECEC release schedule is
available at www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/ecec.htm. Subscribe to receive the BLS Economic News
Release email at www.bls.gov/bls/list.htm.