Employer Costs For Employee Compensation - March 1994 — 1994-06-16

Employer costs for employee compensation in the United States (private industry and state and local governments) averaged $18.43 per hour worked in March 1994, 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 $13.06 an hour, and benefit costs (the remaining 29.1 percent) averaged $5.37. Legally required benefits (e.g., social security, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance) averaged $1.59 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 ($1.38), paid leave ($1.23), retirement and savings (73 cents), and supplemental pay (40 cents), which includes premium pay for overtime, shift pay, nonproduction bonuses, and lump-sum payments provided in lieu of wage increases.