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Employer cost for employee compensation $29.63 per hour, December 2013
March 13, 2014
Nationwide, private industry employers spent an average of $29.63 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December 2013. Wages and salaries averaged $20.76 per hour worked (and accounted for 70.1 percent of total employee compensation costs), while total benefits costs averaged $8.87 (accounting for the remaining 29.9 percent).
Employer costs per hour worked for employee compensation, private industry, by region, December 2013
Compensation component
United States
Northeast
West
Midwest
South
Total compensation
$29.63
$33.87
$31.44
$28.44
$26.93
Total benefits
8.87
10.61
9.39
8.61
7.73
Paid leave
2.05
2.51
2.13
1.95
1.81
Supplemental pay
0.85
1.06
0.87
0.74
0.78
Insurance
2.45
2.96
2.45
2.55
2.08
Retirement and savings
1.10
1.31
1.28
1.03
0.92
Legally required benefits
2.43
2.78
2.66
2.33
2.14
Wages and salaries
20.76
23.25
22.05
19.84
19.20
Note: The sum of individual items may not equal totals due to rounding.
Total benefits costs consist of paid leave benefits (which averaged $2.05 per hour worked), supplemental pay (which averaged 85 cents per hour worked), insurance benefits ($2.45), retirement and savings ($1.10), and legally required benefits ($2.43).
By region, total employee compensation costs per hour worked in December 2013 ranged from $26.93 in the South to $33.87 in the Northeast. Wages and salaries ranged from the South's $19.20 to the Northeast's $23.25. Total benefits costs were $7.73 and $10.61, respectively, in these two regions.
These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — December 2013" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-14-0390.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employer cost for employee compensation $29.63 per hour, December 2013 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20140313.htm (visited April 16, 2024).
United States Department of Labor
