Employer Costs for Employee Compensation News Release — 2019-03-19

Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $36.32 per hour worked in December 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged $24.91 per hour worked and accounted for 68.6 percent of these costs, while benefit costs averaged $11.41 and accounted for the remaining 31.4 percent. (See tables A and 1.) Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $50.55 per hour worked in December 2018. Wages and salaries averaged $31.59 per hour worked and accounted for 62.5 percent of these costs, while benefit costs averaged $18.96 and accounted for the remaining 37.5 percent. For benefit costs by category, insurance and retirement and savings costs both averaged $5.95 per hour worked or 11.8 percent of total compensation, and paid leave costs averaged $3.79 per hour worked for 7.5 percent of total compensation.