Health benefit costs in private industry, March 2006

The average cost for health benefits was $1.72 per hour worked in private industry (6.9 percent of total compensation) in March 2006.

[Chart data—TXT]

Among occupational groups, employer costs for health benefits ranged from 77 cents per hour and 6.2 percent of total compensation for service workers to $2.50 and 5.6 percent of total compensation for management, professional, and related occupations.

Among other occupational categories, employer costs for health benefits averaged $1.49 (7.5 percent) for sales and office occupations, $2.15 (7.7 percent) for natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations, and $1.91 (9.0 percent) for production, transportation, and material moving occupations.

These data are from the Compensation Cost Trends program. To learn more about employer costs for employee compensation and benefits, see Employer Costs for Employee Compensation—March 2006 (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 06-1049.