Midwest in the Middle for Cost of Employees

In the United States, employer costs for employees in private industry range from $26.14 per hour in the South to $32.98 in the Northeast. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the same costs are $28.06 in the Midwest and $30.01 in the West.

Overall, compensation costs among private industry employers in the United States averaged $28.80 per hour worked in June 2012. Wages and salaries, at $20.27 per hour, accounted for 70.4 percent of these costs, while benefits, at $8.52, made up the remaining 29.6 percent.

The Midwest Region saw hourly wage and salary averages of $19.50 in June 2012, and that represented 69.5 percent of all compensation costs. Total benefits averaged $8.56, and accounted for the remaining 30.5 percent of all compensation costs. The three highest employee-cost areas for employers included: insurance benefits ($2.55 per hour worked), legally required benefits ($2.29 per hour), and paid leave ($1.86 per hour). These cost areas represented 9.1 percent, 8.2 percent, and 6.6 percent, respectively, of total employer compensation costs.

BLS used compensation data from June 2012. The agency measures the average cost to employers for wages, salaries and benefits per employee hour worked. Benefits include health, life and disability insurance; workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, Social Security and Medicare; and paid leave including vacation, holiday and sick days.

The data cover private industry only and exclude self-employed and farm and private household workers. The costs were collected from a sample of 47,400 occupations from about 9,500 establishments.