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Private employer costs for pay and benefits $38.14 per hour in New England
March 14, 2016
Employer costs for pay and benefits for private industry workers averaged $31.70 per hour worked in December 2015. Wages and salaries averaged $22.14 per hour worked, while benefits averaged $9.57. Average costs for pay and benefits ranged from $38.14 per hour in New England to $24.78 in the East South Central states.
Employer costs per hour worked for employee compensation for private industry workers, by census division, December 2015
Compensation category
Total U.S.
New England
Middle Atlantic
Pacific
South Atlantic
West South Central
East North Central
Mountain
West North Central
East South Central
Total compensation
$31.70
$38.14
$37.62
$34.85
$30.30
$29.74
$29.70
$29.13
$28.85
$24.78
Wages and salaries
22.14
26.77
25.04
24.39
21.37
21.31
20.59
21.22
20.14
17.55
Total benefits
9.57
11.37
12.58
10.45
8.94
8.42
9.11
7.91
8.71
7.23
Paid leave
2.18
2.78
2.78
2.37
2.16
1.86
2.03
1.81
1.97
1.60
Supplemental pay
1.06
1.09
2.20
0.93
0.83
1.17
0.84
0.69
0.73
0.67
Health insurance
2.40
2.93
2.94
2.57
2.20
1.90
2.51
2.00
2.38
2.03
Life and disability insurance
0.15
0.19
0.20
0.11
0.17
0.12
0.16
0.12
0.16
0.12
Retirement and savings
1.25
1.53
1.43
1.51
1.28
1.10
1.15
0.96
1.18
0.87
Legally required benefits
2.53
2.85
3.04
2.97
2.31
2.28
2.43
2.34
2.30
1.94
In the Middle Atlantic states, employer costs for pay and benefits averaged $37.62 per hour in December 2015. Benefits costs averaged $12.58, highest among the nine census divisions. Among the benefit categories, costs for supplemental pay in the Middle Atlantic states were $2.20 per hour. That was about twice the average supplemental pay in the West South Central states and New England and more than 3 times the average in the West North Central, Mountain, and East South Central states. Supplemental pay includes employer costs for employee overtime and premium pay, shift differentials, and nonproduction bonuses. Common nonproduction bonuses include end-of-year and holiday bonuses, referral bonuses, and cash profit sharing.
The states (including the District of Columbia) that compose the census divisions are:
New England: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont
Middle Atlantic: New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania
South Atlantic: Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia East South Central: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee
West South Central: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas East North Central: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin West North Central: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota Mountain: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming Pacific: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington.
These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — December 2015" (HTML) (PDF). Legally required benefits include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation.
United States Department of Labor
