Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release

For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Tuesday, December 17, 2024					    USDL-24-2561

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 2024
                       
Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $46.84 per hour worked in 
September 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged 
$32.25, while benefit costs averaged $14.59. (See tables 1 and 2.) 

Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $44.40 per hour worked in 
September 2024. Wages and salaries averaged $31.25 per hour worked and accounted for 70.4 percent of 
employer costs, while benefit costs averaged $13.15 per hour worked and accounted for the remaining 
29.6 percent. (See tables 1 and 4.)

Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $62.92 per hour 
worked in September 2024. Wages and salaries averaged $38.86 and accounted for 61.8 percent of employer 
costs, while benefit costs averaged $24.06 and accounted for 38.2 percent. (See tables 1 and 3.)

Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers in establishments with less than 50 
workers averaged $35.27 per hour worked in September 2024. Wages and salaries averaged $26.39, while 
benefit costs averaged $8.88. In establishments with 500 workers or more, total employer compensation 
costs averaged $64.48 per hour worked. Wages and salaries averaged $42.18, while benefit costs 
averaged $22.31. (See table 6.)

Compensation costs by establishment size in the private sector

In establishments with less than 50 workers, employer costs for paid leave benefits averaged $2.16 per 
hour worked and accounted for 6.1 percent of total compensation costs. Employer costs for legally 
required benefits averaged $2.81 per hour worked and accounted for 8.0 percent of total 
compensation costs.

In establishments with 500 workers or more, employer costs for paid leave benefits averaged $5.83 per 
hour worked and accounted for 9.0 percent of total compensation costs. Employer costs for legally 
required benefits averaged $4.29 per hour worked and accounted for 6.6 percent of total compensation 
costs. (See table 6.) 

In goods-producing industries, total employer compensation costs averaged $39.74 per hour worked in 
establishments with less than 50 workers and $56.64 per hour worked in establishments with 500 workers 
or more. In service-providing industries, total employer compensation costs averaged $34.57 per 
hour worked in establishments with less than 50 workers and $66.14 per hour worked in establishments 
with 500 workers or more. (See table 6.)

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for December 2024 is scheduled to be released on 
Friday, March 14, 2025, 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 the 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 23,100 
occupational observations selected from a sample of about 5,500 private industry establishments
and approximately 7,400 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 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 the 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. 
The transition from NAICS 2017 to NAICS 2022 occurred during the March 2024 ECEC and series were 
determined to remain continuous.

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. 

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access 
telecommunications relay services.