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Employer Costs for Employee Compensation

The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) measures the average employer cost per employee hour worked for total compensation, wages and salaries, and benefits, and costs as a percent of total compensation. These data are collected through the National Compensation Survey (NCS) and provide information about average compensation in the economy at a point in time.

Employer costs are available for different benefits, including paid leave—vacation, holiday, sick, and personal leave; supplemental pay—overtime and premium, shift differentials, and nonproduction bonuses; insurance—life, health, short-term and long-term disability; retirement and savings— defined benefit and defined contribution; and legally required benefits—Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation.


Charts

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Latest Numbers

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EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION (ECEC) News Release
Total compensation: per hour worked

Civilian workers $45.42 in 4th Qtr of 2023 Historical Data

Private industry workers $43.11 in 4th Qtr of 2023 Historical Data

State and local government workers $60.56 in 4th Qtr of 2023 Historical Data

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News Releases

Private industry compensation costs average $43.11 per hour worked in December 2023

03/13/2024

Employer costs for private industry workers averaged $30.33 per hour worked for wages and salaries and $12.77 for benefits in December 2023. Paid leave costs were $3.26 per hour, accounting for 7.6 percent of total compensation costs.
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Next Release

The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) March 2024 is scheduled to be released on June 18, 2024 at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time.

Publications

The Economics Daily

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Compensation costs for civilian workers averaged $42.48 per hour worked in December 2022

Total employer compensation costs for civilian workers averaged $42.48 per hour worked in December 2022. Wages and salaries cost employers $29.32 and accounted for 69.0 percent of total costs, while benefits cost $13.17 and accounted for the remaining 31.0 percent. read more »

Beyond the Numbers

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Employer-provided bonuses: what are they, what types of businesses offer them, and who receives them?

This Beyond the Numbers article, presents information on the types of private industry businesses that provide nonproduction bonuses and which employees have access to these bonuses. read more »

Spotlight on Statistics

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A Look at Healthcare Spending, Employment, Pay, benefits, and Prices

A look at healthcare spending, employment, pay, benefits, and prices read more »

Monthly Labor Review

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The National Compensation Survey and the Affordable Care Act: preserving quality health care data

With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the National Compensation Survey has worked to evaluate the potential effects on the cost, coverage, and provisions for the employer-sponsored health care data it currently publishes; and explore possibilities for future collection and publication efforts. read more »