EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION – MARCH 2014
Employer costs for employee compensation averaged $31.93 per hour worked in March 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries averaged $21.96 per hour worked and accounted for 68.8 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $9.97 and accounted for the remaining 31.2 percent. Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $29.99 per hour worked in March 2014. Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $43.10 per hour worked in March 2014.
And you wonder why your taxes are so high? Are public employees underpaid relative to the people paying the bills?
The BLS notes:
Compensation cost levels in state and local government should not be directly compared with levels in private industry. Differences between these sectors stem from factors such as variation in work activities and occupational structures. Manufacturing and sales, for example, make up a large part of private industry work activities but are rare in state and local government. Professional and administrative support occupations (including teachers) account for two-thirds of the state and local government workforce, compared with one-half of private industry.
These caveats are quite irrelevant to the taxpayers picking up the bill for the compensation and benefits of public employees
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