From the latest stats, it looks like the days of shrinking payroll budgets may be behind us.
Company spending on employee compensation appears to be flattening out, according to the most recent stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Private industry spent $27.42 per hour worked on average for total employee comp in December. That figure hasn’t moved since June 2009 (the last time the BLS collected comp data).
In December, wages and salaries averaged $19.41 per hour worked and accounted for 70.8% of those costs, while benefits averaged $8 and accounted for the remaining 29.2%.
Again, that breakdown is nearly identical to what it was six months earlier.
Look deeper into the private industry numbers and you’ll see:
- private industry employer costs for paid leave averaged $1.86 per hour worked (6.8% of total comp)
- supplemental pay averaged 82 cents (3%)
- insurance benefits (life, health and disability) averaged $2.15 (7.8%)
- retirement and savings averaged 92 cents (3.4%), and
- legally required benefits (Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation) averaged $2.25 (8.2%).
Government and total combined costs
Total comp costs for state and local government workers averaged $39.60 per hour worked.
And when you combine both groups — private industry and state and local government workers — employers paid an average of $29.37 per hour worked, according to the BLS.
For all employers (both private and government combined):
- insurance benefits averaged $2.54 per hour worked (8.7% of total comp)
- paid leave averaged $2.04 (6.9%)
- supplemental pay averaged 74 cents (2.5%)
- retirement and savings averaged $1.29 (4.4%),
- and legally required benefits averaged $2.27 (7.7%).
