Employer Costs For Employee Compensation - March 1995 — 1995-06-22

Employer costs for employee compensation in the United States (private industry and state and local governments) averaged $18.38 per hour worked in March 1995, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Straight-time wages and salaries (71.4 percent of the costs) averaged $13.12 an hour, and benefit costs (the remaining 28.6 percent) averaged $5.26. 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 8.7 percent of total compensa tion 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 ($1.29), paid leave ($1.22), retirement and savings (71 cents), and supplemental pay (42 cents), which in cludes premium pay for overtime, shift pay, nonproduction bonuses, and lump-sum payments provided in lieu of wage increases.