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Employer costs for employee compensation, March 2014

June 12, 2014

Among workers in private industry and state and local government, employer costs for employee compensation averaged $31.93 per hour worked in March 2014; the wages and salaries portion of these costs averaged $21.96 per hour worked (68.8 percent), and the benefits portion averaged $9.97 (31.2 percent). In March 2004, total compensation costs were $24.95 per hour worked, with wages and salaries for that year averaging $17.71 (71.0 percent) and benefits averaging $7.23 (29.0 percent).

 

Employer costs per hour worked for total employee compensation, wages and salaries, and benefits, March 2004 and March 2014
MonthTotal compensationWages and salariesBenefits

March 2004

$24.95$17.71$7.23

March 2014

31.9321.969.97

In March 2014, total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $29.99 per hour worked, with wages and salaries averaging $20.96 per hour (69.9 percent) and benefits averaging $9.03 per hour (30.1 percent). Employer costs for paid leave in private industry averaged $2.09 per hour worked (7.0 percent of total compensation), supplemental pay averaged 85 cents (2.8 percent), insurance benefits averaged $2.50 (8.3 percent), retirement and savings averaged $1.15 (3.8 percent), and legally required benefits averaged $2.44 (8.1 percent).

The average cost for health insurance benefits in private industry was $2.36 per hour worked in March 2014 (7.9 percent of total compensation). In March 2004, employer costs for health benefits averaged $1.53 per hour worked (6.6 percent of total compensation).

These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. All workers include those in the private nonfarm economy excluding households and those in the public sector excluding the federal government. To learn more, see “Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — March 2014” (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL‑14‑1075.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employer costs for employee compensation, March 2014 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20140612.htm (visited March 19, 2024).

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