Employer Costs For Employee Compensation - March 1993 — 1993-06-18

Employer costs for employee compensation in the U.S. economy (private industry and state and local governments) averaged $17.88 per hour worked in March 1993, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Straight-time wages and salaries (70.9 percent of the costs) averaged $12.68 an hour, while benefit costs (the remaining 29.1 percent) averaged $5.20. Legally required benefits (e.g., social security, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance) averaged $1.53 per hour worked-- the largest cost to employers among the benefit categories. Legally required benefits accounted for 8.6 percent of total compensation costs and nearly one-third of all benefit costs. (See table 1.) Other important benefit categories and their average costs per hour worked were: Insurance ($1.32), paid leave ($1.22), retirement and savings (70 cents), and supplemental pay (39 cents), which includes premium pay for overtime, shift pay, nonproduction bonuses, and lump-sum payments provided in lieu of wage increases.