EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION – JUNE 2017

Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $35.28 per hour worked in June 2017, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged $24.10 per hour worked and accounted for 68.3 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $11.18 and accounted for the remaining 31.7 percent. The employer costs for retirement and savings averaged $1.92 per employee hour worked (5.4 percent of total compensation). (See table 1.)

Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $33.26 per hour worked where wages and salaries averaged $23.15 (69.6 percent of total compensation) and benefit costs averaged $10.11 (30.4 percent). (See table 5.)

Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $48.06 per hour worked, where wages and salaries averaged $30.12 (62.7 percent of total compensation) and benefit costs averaged $17.94 (37.3 percent). (See table 3.)

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.

Table A. Relative importance of employer costs for employee compensation, June 2017

Compensation                        Civilian         Private        State and local

component                             workers(1)     industry       government

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Wages and salaries                 68.3%           69.6%         62.7%

Benefits                                  31.7              30.4            37.3

Paid leave                               7.0                6.9             7.5

Supplemental pay                    3.1                3.5             1.0

Insurance                                8.7                8.0             11.9

Health benefits                        8.3                7.5             11.6

Retirement and savings           5.4                 4.1             11.3

Defined benefit                       3.5                 1.9             10.5

Defined contribution               2.0                 2.2              0.8

 Legally required                    7.4                 7.8              5.6

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1 Includes workers in the private nonfarm economy except those in private households, and

     workers in the public sector, except the federal government.

Highlights of employer retirement and savings costs per hour worked for private industry

workers:

• Employer costs for all private industry workers averaged $1.36 per hour worked, or 4.1 percent of total compensation. (See table 5.)

• Employer costs by occupational group ranged from $2.80 (4.7 percent of total compensation) for management, professional, and related workers to 25 cents (1.6 percent) for service workers. (See table 5.)

• Employer costs by bargaining status were $4.54 (9.2 percent of total compensation) for union workers and $1.05 (3.3 percent) for nonunion workers. Defined benefit plan costs were significantly higher for union workers at $3.25 (6.6 percent) as compared with 36 cents (1.1 percent) for nonunion workers. (See table 5.)

• Employer costs by industry were $2.22 (5.6 percent of total compensation) in goods- producing industries and $1.19 (3.7 percent) in service- providing industries. Across major industry groups costs ranged from $2.58 in information to 21 cents in leisure and hospitality. (See chart 1 and table 6.)

• Employer costs among Census regions averaged $1.18 (3.9 percent of total compensation) in the South, $1.25 (4.1 percent) in the Midwest, $1.45 (4.2 percent) in the West, and $1.75 (4.2 percent) in the Northeast. (See table 7.)

• Employer costs by establishment size averaged $1.99 (5.1 percent of total compensation) for establishments with 100 workers or more and 84 cents (3.0 percent) for establishments with 1 to 99 workers. (See chart 2 and table 8.)

• Employer costs by work status averaged $1.73 (4.4 percent of total compensation) for full-time workers in private industry and 37 cents (2.1 percent) for part-time workers.

• Costs for full-time workers in service occupations averaged 44 cents per hour worked, compared with 9 cents for part-time workers. (See table 11.)

Other benefit categories in private industry

Private industry employer costs for paid leave averaged $2.30 per hour worked (6.9 percent of total compensation), supplemental pay averaged $1.18 (3.5 percent), insurance benefits averaged $2.66 (8.0 percent), and legally required benefits averaged $2.61 (7.8 percent). (See table A and table 5.)

 

Source: BLS