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.

Private employer costs for pay and benefits were highest in the Pacific region in December 2019

March 24, 2020

Employer costs for employee compensation for private industry workers averaged $34.72 per hour worked in December 2019. Employer costs ranged from an average of $27.94 per hour worked in the East South Central census region to $42.04 in the Pacific region.

Employer costs per hour worked for employee compensation, private industry workers by census division, December 2019
Area Total compensation Wages and salaries Total benefits

Northeast

$39.22 $26.92 $12.30

New England

40.42 27.86 12.56

Middle Atlantic

38.79 26.59 12.20

South

30.48 21.88 8.60

South Atlantic

31.10 22.33 8.77

East South Central

27.94 19.74 8.20

West South Central

30.58 22.10 8.49

Midwest

33.05 22.85 10.19

East North Central

33.76 23.23 10.52

West North Central

31.51 22.03 9.48

West

39.37 27.67 11.69

Mountain

33.16 23.40 9.76

Pacific

$42.04 29.51 12.52

At the national level, wages and salaries for private industry workers averaged $24.36 per hour worked, while benefit costs averaged $10.37. At the regional level, wages and salaries ranged from $19.74 for the East South Central region to $29.51 for the Pacific region. Total benefit costs ranged from $8.20 for the East South Central region to $12.56 for New England.

The states (including the District of Columbia) that compose the census regions 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 2019." We also have more charts on employer costs for employee compensation.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Private employer costs for pay and benefits were highest in the Pacific region in December 2019 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/private-employer-costs-for-pay-and-benefits-were-highest-in-the-pacific-region-in-december-2019.htm (visited May 13, 2024).

OF INTEREST
spotlight
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics


triangle