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Nationwide, private industry employers spent an average of $29.63 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December 2013. Wages and salaries averaged $20.76 per hour worked (and accounted for 70.1 percent of total employee compensation costs), while total benefits costs averaged $8.87 (accounting for the remaining 29.9 percent).
Compensation component | United States | Northeast | West | Midwest | South |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total compensation | $29.63 | $33.87 | $31.44 | $28.44 | $26.93 |
Total benefits | 8.87 | 10.61 | 9.39 | 8.61 | 7.73 |
Paid leave | 2.05 | 2.51 | 2.13 | 1.95 | 1.81 |
Supplemental pay | 0.85 | 1.06 | 0.87 | 0.74 | 0.78 |
Insurance | 2.45 | 2.96 | 2.45 | 2.55 | 2.08 |
Retirement and savings | 1.10 | 1.31 | 1.28 | 1.03 | 0.92 |
Legally required benefits | 2.43 | 2.78 | 2.66 | 2.33 | 2.14 |
Wages and salaries | 20.76 | 23.25 | 22.05 | 19.84 | 19.20 |
Note: The sum of individual items may not equal totals due to rounding.
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Total benefits costs consist of paid leave benefits (which averaged $2.05 per hour worked), supplemental pay (which averaged 85 cents per hour worked), insurance benefits ($2.45), retirement and savings ($1.10), and legally required benefits ($2.43).
By region, total employee compensation costs per hour worked in December 2013 ranged from $26.93 in the South to $33.87 in the Northeast. Wages and salaries ranged from the South's $19.20 to the Northeast's $23.25. Total benefits costs were $7.73 and $10.61, respectively, in these two regions.
These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — December 2013" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-14-0390.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employer cost for employee compensation $29.63 per hour, December 2013 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20140313.htm (visited December 12, 2024).