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Employee compensation costs $31.39 per hour worked in June 2015

September 16, 2015

In June 2015, private industry employers spent an average of $31.39 per hour worked for employee compensation. Wages and salaries averaged $21.82 per hour worked and accounted for 69.5 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $9.56 and accounted for the remaining 30.5 percent.

Employer costs per hour worked for employee compensation, private industry, QI 2005–Q2 2015
Quarter Wages and salaries Benefits
Legally
required
benefits
Insurance Paid leave Retirement
and
savings
Supplemental
pay

QI 2005

$17.15 $2.10 $1.76 $1.54 $0.90 $0.68

QII 2005

17.21 2.12 1.76 1.54 0.88 0.69

QIII 2005

17.23 2.14 1.78 1.55 0.90 0.71

QIV 2005

17.51 2.14 1.81 1.61 0.89 0.72

QI 2006

17.73 2.15 1.85 1.71 0.91 0.73

QII 2006

17.77 2.16 1.87 1.70 0.91 0.73

QIII 2006

18.04 2.18 1.89 1.73 0.93 0.75

QIV 2006

18.11 2.20 1.92 1.76 0.94 0.75

QI 2007

18.34 2.20 1.97 1.78 0.87 0.76

QII 2007

18.32 2.21 1.97 1.77 0.88 0.78

QIII 2007

18.42 2.21 1.99 1.76 0.92 0.78

QIV 2007

18.67 2.22 2.01 1.79 0.95 0.79

QI 2008

18.91 2.24 2.06 1.80 0.96 0.80

QII 2008

18.92 2.24 2.05 1.78 0.95 0.83

QIII 2008

19.14 2.26 2.07 1.81 0.97 0.82

QIV 2008

19.37 2.26 2.09 1.85 0.96 0.81

QI 2009

19.45 2.27 2.14 1.86 0.96 0.78

QII 2009

19.39 2.26 2.13 1.85 0.95 0.83

QIII 2009

19.45 2.27 2.15 1.86 0.94 0.83

QIV 2009

19.41 2.25 2.15 1.86 0.92 0.82

QI 2010

19.58 2.28 2.22 1.88 0.96 0.81

QII 2010

19.53 2.29 2.22 1.86 0.96 0.78

QIII 2010

19.68 2.31 2.24 1.88 0.99 0.78

QIV 2010

19.64 2.28 2.22 1.89 0.97 0.75

QI 2011

19.85 2.31 2.26 1.92 1.00 0.76

QII 2011

19.81 2.33 2.27 1.90 1.03 0.80

QIII 2011

19.91 2.34 2.28 1.90 1.02 0.80

QIV 2011

20.14 2.33 2.31 1.97 1.02 0.80

QI 2012

20.25 2.36 2.34 1.98 1.02 0.83

QII 2012

20.27 2.37 2.34 1.97 1.02 0.82

QIII 2012

20.36 2.38 2.35 1.98 1.03 0.82

QIV 2012

20.32 2.37 2.34 1.98 1.04 0.82

QI 2013

20.47 2.39 2.40 2.01 1.06 0.81

QII 2013

20.47 2.39 2.39 2.00 1.07 0.80

QIII 2013

20.55 2.40 2.39 2.01 1.07 0.80

QIV 2013

20.76 2.43 2.45 2.05 1.10 0.85

QI 2014

20.96 2.44 2.50 2.09 1.15 0.85

QII 2014

21.02 2.44 2.49 2.08 1.23 0.85

QIII 2014

21.18 2.45 2.50 2.10 1.23 0.86

QIV 2014

21.72 2.50 2.54 2.16 1.30 1.10

QI 2015

21.94 2.51 2.58 2.18 1.31 1.12

QII 2015

21.82 2.50 2.57 2.15 1.24 1.10

Total benefits are made up of legally required benefits, insurance, paid leave, retirement and savings, and supplemental pay.

The average costs in private industry for legally required benefits (such as Social Security and unemployment insurance) were $2.50 per hour worked, or 8.0 percent of total compensation in June 2015.

Private industry employer costs for insurance were $2.57 (8.2 percent of total compensation) per hour worked, on average.

The average costs per hour worked for paid leave were $2.15 (6.9 percent).

Average costs in private industry for retirement and savings benefits were $1.24 per hour worked (4.0 percent).

The costs of supplemental pay were $1.10 (3.5 percent) per hour worked, on average.

These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see “Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — June 2015” (HTML) (PDF).

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employee compensation costs $31.39 per hour worked in June 2015 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/employee-compensation-costs-31-dollars-39-cents-per-hour-worked-in-june-2015.htm (visited March 28, 2024).

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