Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release — 2021-03-18

Employer costs for employee compensation for civilian workers averaged $38.60 per hour worked in December 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries cost employers $26.53 and accounted for 68.7 percent of total costs, while benefits cost $12.07 and accounted for the remaining 31.3 percent. (See table 1.) State and local government employer costs averaged $53.47 per hour worked. Wages and salaries averaged $33.08 per hour worked and represented 61.9 percent of total compensation costs, while benefit costs averaged $20.39 and accounted for the remaining 38.1 percent. (See tables 1 and 3.) Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $36.23 per hour worked in December 2020. Wage and salary costs averaged $25.48 and accounted for 70.3 percent of employer costs, while benefit costs were $10.74 and accounted for 29.7 percent.