Employee Compensation

Barry Ritholz, citing a June Bureau of Labor Statistics report, breaks down the employer cost per employee hour worked:

· Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $24.96 per hour worked;
· Wages and salaries, which averaged $17.70, accounting for 70.9% of costs;
· Benefits, averaging $7.26, accounted for the remaining 29.1%;
· Costs for *legally required benefits averaged $2.03 per hour 8.1%
(Note that represents the largest non-wage employer cost).
· Life, health, and disability insurance benefits averaged $1.93 (7.7%);
· Paid leave **benefits was $1.66 (6.6%);
· Retirement and savings benefits averaged $1.01 (4.1%).

That’s $56.55 per hour. No wonder President Bush can’t create more jobs!

Update: I just add up the numbers in the left column. . . .

It reminds me of the P.J. O’Rourke spiel about why only he and I pay all the income taxes from Parliament of Whores.

FILED UNDER: Economics and Business, , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Dave Schuler says:

    Check your math. You’re doubling things.

  2. Jay says:

    What Dave said.

  3. Boyd says:

    Yes, if you add in the two items that Barry left out of his post (59¢ for Supplemental pay (overtime, shift differentials, etc.) and 4¢ for Other benefits), all of the figures add up to the $24.96 total.

  4. Boyd says:

    Grrr…HTML processing dumped my cents symbols…so the numbers are $0.59 and $0.04, respectively.