Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Benefits account for 30.9 percent of employee compensation, September 2013

December 20, 2013

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.

Employer costs as a percent of total compensation, civilian workers, September 2013
Employer costs as a percent of total compensation, civilian workers, September 2013
Compensation componentPercent 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.

SUGGESTED CITATION

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 April 18, 2024).

OF INTEREST
spotlight
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics


triangle