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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION – DECEMBER 2012 [12 March 2013]

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm

or

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf

[full-text, 23 pages]

 

Private industry employers spent an average of $28.89 per hour worked for total employee

compensation in December 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries

averaged $20.32 per hour worked and accounted for 70.3 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged

$8.57 and accounted for the remaining 29.7 percent. Total compensation costs for state and local

government workers averaged $41.94 per hour worked in December 2012. Total employer

compensation costs for civilian workers, which include private industry and state and local government

workers, averaged $30.84 per hour worked in December 2012.

 

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), a product of the National Compensation Survey,

measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits for nonfarm private and state and

local government workers.

 

Paid leave costs in private industry

 

Private industry employer costs for paid leave benefits in December 2012 averaged $1.98 per hour

worked, or 6.9 percent of total compensation. Paid leave benefit costs by major private industry group

were highest for the information industry at $4.12 per hour, or 8.9 percent of total compensation. Costs

were lowest for the leisure and hospitality industry at 39 cents, or 3.1 percent of total compensation.

(See chart 1 and table 6.) Included in this amount were employer costs for vacations, holidays, sick

leave, and personal leave. Paid leave benefit costs are often directly linked to wages; therefore, higher

paid occupations or industries will typically show higher estimates for this compensation component.

 

Employer costs for paid leave were primarily from vacation, holiday, and sick leave benefits. In

December 2012, vacation costs averaged $1.03 per hour (3.6 percent of total compensation) while

holiday costs were 61 cents per hour (2.1 percent) and sick leave costs were 25 cents per hour (0.9

percent). (See table 5.)

 

Paid leave costs varied widely by full-time and part-time status and bargaining unit status. Paid leave

costs for all full-time workers in private industry were $2.52 per hour worked (7.5 percent of total

compensation), significantly higher than part-time workers at just 42 cents (2.8 percent). Paid leave costs

for union workers were $2.82 per hour worked (7.1 percent of total compensation) versus $1.90 (6.8

percent) for nonunion workers. (See chart 2, and table 5 and 12.)

 

For information on paid leave provisions, see National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in the

United States, March 2012, at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/benefits/2012/benefits.htm.

 

AND MUCH MORE...including TABLES...

 

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