(202) 691-5902 Tuesday, November 25, 2003 — 2003-11-25

Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $24.48 per hour worked in September 2003, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Wages and salaries, which averaged $17.52, accounted for 71.6 percent of these costs, while benefits, which averaged $6.97, accounted for the remaining 28.5 percent. (See table 1.) The percentage gain in benefit costs continued to outpace the increase in wages and salaries, rising from 27.8 percent of total compensation in September 2002. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, from the BLS National Compensation Survey, measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and State and local government workers. Legally required benefits, including Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation, averaged $1.95 per hour (8.0 percent of total compensation), representing the largest non-wage employer cost.