Employer Costs For Employee Compensation-December 2006 — 2007-03-29

Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $27.54 per hour worked in December 2006, the U.S. Department of Labor�s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries, which averaged $19.24 per hour, accounted for 69.9 percent of these costs, while benefits, which averaged $8.30 per hour, accounted for the remaining 30.1 percent. (See table 1.) Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, a product of the National Compensation Survey, measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and local government workers. Employer costs for insurance benefits - life, health, and disability - averaged $2.26 per hour (8.2 percent of total compensation). Legally required benefits, including Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers� compensation, averaged $2.20 per hour (8.0 percent of total compensation); paid leave benefits (vacations, holidays, sick leave, and other leave) averaged $1.94 (7.0 percent); and retirement and savings benefits averaged $1.21 (4.4 percent) per hour worked.