Sunday, June 12, 2016

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation – March, 2016: Private employers spend $2.44 per hour worked for employee health benefits



Private employers spent an average of $32.06 per hour worked for compensation in March 2016. Health insurance was the largest individual employer benefit cost at $2.44, accounting for 7.6 percent of total compensation costs.

EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION – MARCH 2016

Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $33.94 per hour worked in March 2016, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged $23.25 per hour worked and accounted for 68.5 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $10.70 and accounted for the remaining 31.5 percent. Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $32.06 per hour worked in March 2016. Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $45.23 per hour worked in March 2016. 


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.

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). In March 2016, total compensation costs for the 15 areas ranged from $50.66 per hour worked in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA CSA, to $28.34 per 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 $2.44 per hour worked in private industry (7.6 percent of total compensation) in March 2016. Among occupational groups, employer costs for health insurance benefits ranged from 89 cents per hour worked and 5.9 percent of total compensation for service workers, to $3.81 and 6.7 percent of total compensation for management, professional, and related occupations. (See table 5.)

Employer costs for health insurance benefits were significantly higher for union workers, averaging $5.76 per hour worked (12.6 percent of total compensation), than for nonunion workers, averaging $2.12 (6.9 percent). (See table 5.)

In goods-producing industries, health insurance benefit costs were higher, at $3.39 per hour worked (8.8 percent of total compensation), than in service-providing industries, at $2.25 (7.3 percent). In goods-producing industries, health insurance benefit costs were $3.71 (9.6 percent of total compensation) for manufacturing and $2.72 (7.4 percent) for construction. In service-producing industries, health insurance benefit costs ranged from $4.76 (8.9 percent) for information to 75 cents (5.4 percent) for leisure and hospitality. (See table 6 and chart 2.)

Among the four regions, costs for health insurance benefits ranged from $2.13 per hour worked (7.2 percent of total compensation) in the South to $3.00 (7.7 percent) in the Northeast. Health insurance costs were $2.50 (8.5 percent) in the Midwest and $2.41 (7.3 percent) in the West. (See table 7.)

Health insurance benefit costs increased, with establishment size, by average hourly dollar amount and as a proportion of total compensation. Establishments with fewer than 50 workers averaged $1.61 per hour worked (6.0 percent of total compensation); those with 50-99 workers averaged $2.06 (7.3 percent); those with 100-499 employees averaged $2.72 (8.3 percent); and those with 500 or more employees averaged $4.27 (9.1 percent). (See table 8.)

For information on health insurance provisions, see National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2015, at www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2015/benefits.htm and National Compensation Survey: Health and Retirement Plan Provisions in the United States, 2015, at www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/detailedprovisions/2015/ownership/private/ebbl0058.pdf.

Other benefit categories in private industry

Private industry employer costs for paid leave averaged $2.20 per hour worked (6.9 percent of total compensation), supplemental pay averaged $1.16 (3.6 percent), insurance benefits averaged $2.59 (8.1 percent), retirement and savings averaged $1.23 (3.8 percent), and legally required benefits averaged $2.54 (7.9 percent). (See table A and table 5.)





Source: BLS

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