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Compensation costs for civilian workers averaged $49.32 per hour worked in March 2026

June 24, 2026

Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $49.32 per hour worked in March 2026. Wages and salaries averaged $33.72, while benefit costs averaged $15.60.

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Employer costs per hour worked for employee compensation, in dollars, March 2026
Compensation	Civilian workers	Private industry workers	State and local government workers
Total compensation	49.32	46.60	66.41
Wages and salaries	33.72	32.60	40.82
Total benefits	15.60	14.01	25.59
Note: Data are not seasonally adjusted. The sum of individual items may not equal total due to rounding.

Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $46.60 per hour worked in March 2026. Wages and salaries averaged $32.60 per hour worked and accounted for 69.9 percent of employer costs, while benefit costs averaged $14.01 per hour worked and accounted for the remaining 30.1 percent.

For state and local government workers, total employer compensation costs averaged $66.41 per hour worked in March 2026. Wages and salaries averaged $40.82 per hour worked and accounted for 61.5 percent of employer costs, while benefit costs averaged $25.59 per hour worked and accounted for the remaining 38.5 percent.

These data are from the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation program and are not seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — March 2026." We also have more charts on employer costs for employee compensation.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Compensation costs for civilian workers averaged $49.32 per hour worked in March 2026 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/compensation-costs-for-civilian-workers-averaged-49-32-per-hour-worked-in-march-2026.htm (visited June 25, 2026).

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