Retirement and savings benefit costs for employers in private industry, June 2011

September 13, 2011

In June 2011, average costs in private industry for retirement and savings benefits—which include defined benefit and defined contribution plans—were $1.03 per hour worked, or 3.7 percent of total compensation.

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Employer costs for retirement and savings benefits varied by occupational group. Costs were highest among management, professional, and related occupations, at $2.08 per hour (4.1 percent of total compensation) in June 2011. Costs were lowest among service occupations, at 22 cents per hour (1.6 percent of total compensation).

Retirement and savings benefits costs were higher, both in amount and as a proportion of total compensation, for union workers ($2.92 and 7.7 percent of total compensation) than for nonunion workers (83 cents and 3.1 percent of total compensation).

Costs for retirement and savings benefits were also higher in goods-producing industries ($1.70 and 5.1 percent of total compensation) than in service-providing industries (89 cents and 3.3 percent of total compensation).

These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — June 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-1305.