Health benefit costs in private industry, March 2008

The average cost for health insurance benefits was $1.92 per hour worked in private industry (accounting for 7.2 percent of average total compensation of $28.46) in March 2008.

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Among occupational groups, employer costs for health benefits ranged from 90 cents per hour for service workers to $2.77 for management, professional, and related occupations.

Among other occupational categories, employer costs for health benefits averaged $1.67 for sales and office occupations, $2.30 for natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations, and $2.21 for production, transportation, and material moving occupations.

Employer costs for health benefits were significantly higher for union workers, averaging $3.95 per hour, than for nonunion workers, averaging $1.68.

Five years earlier, in March 2003, employer costs for health benefits averaged $1.41, or 6.3 percent of total compensation.

These data are from the Compensation Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation: March 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL: 08-0788.