Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release — 2016-12-08

Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $34.15 per hour worked in September 2016, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged $23.42 per hour worked and accounted for 68.6 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $10.73 and accounted for the remaining 31.4 percent. Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $32.27 per hour worked in September 2016. Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $45.93 per hour worked in September 2016. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), 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. State and local government employers spent an average of $45.93 per hour worked for employee compensation in September 2016.