September 13, 2011 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Retirement and savings benefit costs for employers in private industry, June 2011

In June 2011, average costs in private industry for retirement and savings benefits—which include defined benefit and defined contribution plans—were $1.03 per hour worked, or 3.7 percent of total compensation.

Retirement and savings benefit costs for private industry employers, by occupation, bargaining unit status, and industry, June 2011
[Chart data]

Employer costs for retirement and savings benefits varied by occupational group. Costs were highest among management, professional, and related occupations, at $2.08 per hour (4.1 percent of total compensation) in June 2011. Costs were lowest among service occupations, at 22 cents per hour (1.6 percent of total compensation).

Retirement and savings benefits costs were higher, both in amount and as a proportion of total compensation, for union workers ($2.92 and 7.7 percent of total compensation) than for nonunion workers (83 cents and 3.1 percent of total compensation).

Costs for retirement and savings benefits were also higher in goods-producing industries ($1.70 and 5.1 percent of total compensation) than in service-providing industries (89 cents and 3.3 percent of total compensation).

These data are from the Employment Cost Trends program. To learn more, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation — June 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-1305.

Related TED articles

Benefits | Compensation costs | Industry studies | Occupations

 

 

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month

In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections. . Read more »