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In June 2015, private industry employers spent an average of $31.39 per hour worked for employee compensation. Wages and salaries averaged $21.82 per hour worked and accounted for 69.5 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $9.56 and accounted for the remaining 30.5 percent.
Quarter | Wages and salaries | Benefits | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Legally required benefits |
Insurance | Paid leave | Retirement and savings |
Supplemental pay |
||
QI 2005 |
$17.15 | $2.10 | $1.76 | $1.54 | $0.90 | $0.68 |
QII 2005 |
17.21 | 2.12 | 1.76 | 1.54 | 0.88 | 0.69 |
QIII 2005 |
17.23 | 2.14 | 1.78 | 1.55 | 0.90 | 0.71 |
QIV 2005 |
17.51 | 2.14 | 1.81 | 1.61 | 0.89 | 0.72 |
QI 2006 |
17.73 | 2.15 | 1.85 | 1.71 | 0.91 | 0.73 |
QII 2006 |
17.77 | 2.16 | 1.87 | 1.70 | 0.91 | 0.73 |
QIII 2006 |
18.04 | 2.18 | 1.89 | 1.73 | 0.93 | 0.75 |
QIV 2006 |
18.11 | 2.20 | 1.92 | 1.76 | 0.94 | 0.75 |
QI 2007 |
18.34 | 2.20 | 1.97 | 1.78 | 0.87 | 0.76 |
QII 2007 |
18.32 | 2.21 | 1.97 | 1.77 | 0.88 | 0.78 |
QIII 2007 |
18.42 | 2.21 | 1.99 | 1.76 | 0.92 | 0.78 |
QIV 2007 |
18.67 | 2.22 | 2.01 | 1.79 | 0.95 | 0.79 |
QI 2008 |
18.91 | 2.24 | 2.06 | 1.80 | 0.96 | 0.80 |
QII 2008 |
18.92 | 2.24 | 2.05 | 1.78 | 0.95 | 0.83 |
QIII 2008 |
19.14 | 2.26 | 2.07 | 1.81 | 0.97 | 0.82 |
QIV 2008 |
19.37 | 2.26 | 2.09 | 1.85 | 0.96 | 0.81 |
QI 2009 |
19.45 | 2.27 | 2.14 | 1.86 | 0.96 | 0.78 |
QII 2009 |
19.39 | 2.26 | 2.13 | 1.85 | 0.95 | 0.83 |
QIII 2009 |
19.45 | 2.27 | 2.15 | 1.86 | 0.94 | 0.83 |
QIV 2009 |
19.41 | 2.25 | 2.15 | 1.86 | 0.92 | 0.82 |
QI 2010 |
19.58 | 2.28 | 2.22 | 1.88 | 0.96 | 0.81 |
QII 2010 |
19.53 | 2.29 | 2.22 | 1.86 | 0.96 | 0.78 |
QIII 2010 |
19.68 | 2.31 | 2.24 | 1.88 | 0.99 | 0.78 |
QIV 2010 |
19.64 | 2.28 | 2.22 | 1.89 | 0.97 | 0.75 |
QI 2011 |
19.85 | 2.31 | 2.26 | 1.92 | 1.00 | 0.76 |
QII 2011 |
19.81 | 2.33 | 2.27 | 1.90 | 1.03 | 0.80 |
QIII 2011 |
19.91 | 2.34 | 2.28 | 1.90 | 1.02 | 0.80 |
QIV 2011 |
20.14 | 2.33 | 2.31 | 1.97 | 1.02 | 0.80 |
QI 2012 |
20.25 | 2.36 | 2.34 | 1.98 | 1.02 | 0.83 |
QII 2012 |
20.27 | 2.37 | 2.34 | 1.97 | 1.02 | 0.82 |
QIII 2012 |
20.36 | 2.38 | 2.35 | 1.98 | 1.03 | 0.82 |
QIV 2012 |
20.32 | 2.37 | 2.34 | 1.98 | 1.04 | 0.82 |
QI 2013 |
20.47 | 2.39 | 2.40 | 2.01 | 1.06 | 0.81 |
QII 2013 |
20.47 | 2.39 | 2.39 | 2.00 | 1.07 | 0.80 |
QIII 2013 |
20.55 | 2.40 | 2.39 | 2.01 | 1.07 | 0.80 |
QIV 2013 |
20.76 | 2.43 | 2.45 | 2.05 | 1.10 | 0.85 |
QI 2014 |
20.96 | 2.44 | 2.50 | 2.09 | 1.15 | 0.85 |
QII 2014 |
21.02 | 2.44 | 2.49 | 2.08 | 1.23 | 0.85 |
QIII 2014 |
21.18 | 2.45 | 2.50 | 2.10 | 1.23 | 0.86 |
QIV 2014 |
21.72 | 2.50 | 2.54 | 2.16 | 1.30 | 1.10 |
QI 2015 |
21.94 | 2.51 | 2.58 | 2.18 | 1.31 | 1.12 |
QII 2015 |
21.82 | 2.50 | 2.57 | 2.15 | 1.24 | 1.10 |
Total benefits are made up of legally required benefits, insurance, paid leave, retirement and savings, and supplemental pay.
The average costs in private industry for legally required benefits (such as Social Security and unemployment insurance) were $2.50 per hour worked, or 8.0 percent of total compensation in June 2015.
Private industry employer costs for insurance were $2.57 (8.2 percent of total compensation) per hour worked, on average.
The average costs per hour worked for paid leave were $2.15 (6.9 percent).
Average costs in private industry for retirement and savings benefits were $1.24 per hour worked (4.0 percent).
The costs of supplemental pay were $1.10 (3.5 percent) per hour worked, on average.
These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see “Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — June 2015” (HTML) (PDF).
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employee compensation costs $31.39 per hour worked in June 2015 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/employee-compensation-costs-31-dollars-39-cents-per-hour-worked-in-june-2015.htm (visited December 04, 2024).