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Private employer costs for pay and benefits averaged $42.20 per hour in Middle Atlantic states

December 26, 2017

Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $33.55 per hour worked for private industry workers in September 2017. Wages and salaries averaged $23.35 per hour worked and accounted for 69.6 percent of these costs. Benefits costs averaged $10.20 and accounted for the remaining 30.4 percent. Average costs for pay and benefits ranged from $42.20 per hour in the Middle Atlantic states to $25.99 in the East South Central states.

 

Employer costs per hour worked for employee compensation of private industry workers, by Census division, September 2017
Compensation component New England Middle Atlantic South Atlantic East South Central West South Central East North Central West North Central Mountain Pacific

Total compensation

$40.74 $42.20 $31.34 $25.99 $30.42 $30.97 $30.12 $29.90 $37.64

Wages and salaries

28.60 27.62 22.12 18.43 21.84 21.49 21.13 21.65 26.28

Total benefits

12.14 14.58 9.22 7.56 8.58 9.48 8.98 8.25 11.36

Paid leave

2.98 3.15 2.25 1.67 1.95 2.12 2.03 1.85 2.56

Supplemental pay

1.16 3.03 0.85 0.68 1.07 0.90 0.77 0.77 0.95

Insurance

3.35 3.43 2.47 2.31 2.09 2.74 2.48 2.16 2.91

Retirement and savings

1.65 1.83 1.32 0.89 1.12 1.26 1.28 1.06 1.77

Legally required benefits

3.00 3.15 2.33 2.02 2.35 2.46 2.43 2.41 3.17

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 — September 2017" (HTML) (PDF). 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. Legally required benefits include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Private employer costs for pay and benefits averaged $42.20 per hour in Middle Atlantic states at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/private-employer-costs-for-pay-and-benefits-averaged-42-point-20-per-hour-in-middle-atlantic-states.htm (visited December 08, 2024).

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