EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION – MARCH 2014

Private employers spent an average of $29.99 per hour worked for compensation in March 2014. Health insurance was the largest individual employer benefit cost at $2.36, accounting for 7.9 percent of total compensation costs.

Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $31.93 per hour worked in March 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged $21.96 per hour worked and accounted for 68.8 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $9.97 and accounted for the remaining 31.2 percent. Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $29.99 per hour worked in March 2014. Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $43.10 per hour worked in March 2014. 

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), a product of the National Compensation Survey, measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and local government workers.

Private industry

Private industry employer costs for paid leave averaged $2.09 per hour worked (7.0 percent of total compensation), supplemental pay averaged 85 cents (2.8 percent), insurance benefits averaged $2.50 (8.3 percent), retirement and savings averaged $1.15 (3.8 percent), and legally required benefits averaged $2.44 (8.1 percent). (See table A and table 5.)

Metropolitan area costs in private industry

Total compensation, wages and salaries, and benefit costs in private industry are included in this release for 15 combined and metropolitan statistical areas (CSAs and MSAs). Total compensation costs for the 15 metropolitan areas ranged from $45.93 per hour worked for the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA CSA, to $24.10 hour worked in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL MSA. (See chart 1 and table 15.)

Health insurance costs in private industry

The average cost for health insurance benefits was $2.36 per hour worked in private industry (7.9 percent of total compensation) in March 2014. In March 2004, employer costs for health benefits averaged $1.53, or 6.6 percent of total compensation.

Among occupational groups, employer costs for health insurance benefits ranged from 85 cents per hour worked and 6.0 percent of total compensation for service workers, to $3.52 and 6.7 percent of total compensation for management, professional, and related occupations. Among other occupational categories, employer costs for health benefits averaged $2.08 (9.0 percent of total compensation) for sales and office occupations, lower than $2.80 (8.5 percent) for natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations, and $2.72 (10.4 percent) for production, transportation, and material moving occupations. (See table 5.)

Employer costs for health insurance benefits were significantly higher for union workers, averaging $5.54 per hour worked (12.6 percent of total compensation), than for nonunion workers, averaging $2.04 (7.1 percent). (See table 5.)

In goods-producing industries, health insurance benefit costs were higher, at $3.22 per hour worked (9.0 percent of total compensation), than in service-providing industries, at $2.18 (7.6 percent).  In goods-producing major industry groups, health insurance costs in construction averaged $2.61 per hour worked, lower than manufacturing health costs at $3.47 per hour worked.  For service-providing major industries groups, health costs ranged from $4.56 in information to 61 cents for leisure and hospitality. 

(See table 6.)

Health insurance benefit costs increased with establishment size for both average hourly dollar amount and as a proportion of total compensation. Establishments with 1-99 workers averaged $1.65 per hour worked (6.6 percent of total compensation); those with 100-499 employees averaged $2.61 (8.7 percent); and those with 500 or more employees averaged $4.00 (9.1 percent). (See table 8 and chart 2.)

For information on health insurance provisions, see National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2013, at www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2013/benefits.htm.

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Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics