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In September 2013, wages and salaries averaged $21.54 per hour worked and accounted for 69.1 percent of total compensation costs, while benefits averaged $9.61 and accounted for the remaining 30.9 percent.
Compensation component | Percent distribution |
---|---|
Wages and salaries | 69.1% |
Benefits | 30.9% |
Insurance | 9.0% |
Legally required | 7.8% |
Paid leave | 7.0% |
Defined benefit | 3.0% |
Supplemental pay | 2.4% |
Defined contribution | 1.8% |
Wages and salaries for private industry workers averaged $20.55 per hour worked in September 2013 and accounted for 70.3 percent of total compensation costs, while benefits averaged $8.68 and accounted for the remaining 29.7 percent.
In September 2013, State and local government employers spent an average of $27.38 per hour worked on employee wages and salaries, accounting for 64.4 percent of total compensation costs. Benefits averaged $15.13 per hour worked and accounted for the remaining 35.6 percent
These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — September 2013" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-13-2349.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Benefits account for 30.9 percent of employee compensation, September 2013 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2013/ted_20131220.htm (visited March 19, 2025).