Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Friday, December 15, 2023			               USDL-23-2567

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


                       EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION - SEPTEMBER 2023
                       
Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $43.93 per hour worked in
September 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged
$30.35, while benefit costs averaged $13.58. (See tables 1 and 2.)

Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $41.53 per hour worked in
September 2023. Wages and salaries averaged $29.34 per hour worked and accounted for 70.6 percent
of employer costs, while benefit costs averaged $12.19 per hour worked and accounted for the
remaining 29.4 percent. (See tables 1 and 4.)

Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $59.90 per hour
worked in September 2023. Wages and salaries averaged $37.09 and accounted for 61.9 percent of
employer costs, while benefit costs averaged $22.81 and accounted for 38.1 percent. (See tables 1
and 3.)

Employer costs for paid leave benefits for private industry workers averaged $3.09 per hour worked
and accounted for 7.4 percent of total compensation. Employer costs for paid leave benefits for
state and local government workers averaged $4.38 and accounted for 7.3 percent of total
compensation. (See table 1.)

Paid leave benefit costs

Employer costs for employee paid leave components include costs for vacation, holiday, sick, and
personal leave. Employer vacation leave costs averaged $1.59 per employee hour worked or 3.8
percent of total compensation for workers in the private industry. Holiday leave costs averaged
$0.92 per hour worked (2.2 percent of total compensation), sick leave costs averaged $0.40 (1.0
percent), and personal leave costs averaged $0.18 (0.4 percent). (See table 1.)

In private industry establishments with 1-49 workers, employer costs for employee vacation benefits
averaged $1.03 per hour worked and accounted for 3.1 percent of total compensation. In
establishments with 500 workers or more, employer costs for vacation benefits averaged $2.83 and
accounted for 4.7 percent of total compensation. Employer costs for holiday benefits averaged $0.79
per hour worked or 2.0 percent of total compensation in establishments with 50-99 workers. Employer
costs for holiday benefits averaged $0.97 per hour worked or 2.3 percent of total compensation in 
establishments with 100-499 workers.(See the ECEC database query tool at www.bls.gov/ecec/data.htm.)

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for December 2023 is scheduled to be released on
Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 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 27,900 
occupational observations selected from a sample of about 6,900 private industry establishments
and approximately 7,500 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/ecec/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/ecec/data.htm and in xlsx format at www.bls.gov/ecec/tables.htm. The 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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