The BLS released its quarterly report today on " Employer Costs for Employee Compensation " for December 2009, and the key results are displayed above and summarized below.

Private industry employers spent an average of $27.42 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December 2009. Wages and salaries averaged $19.41 per hour worked and accounted for 70.8% of these costs, while benefits averaged $8.00 per hour and accounted for the remaining 29.2%.



Total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $39.60 per hour worked in December 2009 (including benefits of $13.50 per hour), which was 44.5% higher than compensation for private industry workers.