Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Health benefit costs in private industry, March 2009

June 11, 2009

The average cost for health insurance benefits was $2.00 per hour worked in private industry (7.3 percent of total compensation) in March 2009. In March 1999, employer costs for health benefits averaged $1.03, or 5.4 percent of total compensation.

Employer costs per hour worked for health insurance, private industry workers, by occupation and union status, March 2009
[Chart data—TXT]

Among occupational groups, employer costs for health insurance benefits ranged from 91 cents per hour and 6.7 percent of total compensation for service workers, to $2.91 and 6.0 percent of total compensation for management, professional, and related occupations.

Among other occupational categories, employer costs for health benefits averaged $1.77 (8.3 percent) for sales and office occupations, lower than $2.44 (7.9 percent) for natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations, and $2.25 (9.7 percent) for production, transportation, and material moving occupations.

Employer costs for health insurance benefits were significantly higher for union workers, averaging $4.15 per hour (11.4 percent), than for nonunion workers, averaging $1.75 (6.6 percent).

These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation—March 2009" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 09-0634.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Health benefit costs in private industry, March 2009 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2009/jun/wk2/art04.htm (visited November 11, 2024).

OF INTEREST
spotlight
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics



triangle