Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release — 2013-03-12

(Note: Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data for September 2012 and December 2012 contained errors in several series and have been corrected in the public database and historical listings available on the BLS website. This news release will not be corrected. The primary errors are in benefits data for private industry. Some additional series were also corrected. For further information see www.bls.gov/eci_corrections_043013.htm.) Private industry employers spent an average of $28.89 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged $20.32 per hour worked and accounted for 70.3 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $8.57 and accounted for the remaining 29.7 percent. Total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $41.94 per hour worked in December 2012. Total employer compensation costs for civilian workers, which include private industry and state and local government workers, averaged $30.84 per hour worked in December 2012.