Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release — 2009-03-12

Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $29.18 per hour worked in December 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor�s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries, which averaged $20.37, accounted for 69.8 percent of these costs, while benefits, which averaged $8.81, accounted for the remaining 30.2 percent. (See table 1.) Employer costs for legally required benefits averaged $2.27, or 7.8 percent of total compensation per hour worked in December 2008. Legally required benefits--which include Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, and workers� compensation--is only one of several benefit categories included in Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, along with wages and salaries. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation is a product of the National Compensation Survey, which measures employer costs for wages and salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and local government workers. Employer costs for insurance benefits--life, health, and disability--averaged $2.45 per hour (8.4 percent of total compensation).