(Greenwich, 9/23/2006) The Bureau of Labor Statistics (where you can get all sorts of cool economic data by clicking here) has released their report on Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for June, 2006.
Data watchers pay attention to this report because they know that the Fed is data-driven, waiting impatiently by the mail room to interpret each new piece of data as it poops out of the government data mills. And they know the Fed (erroneously) believes that wage increases cause inflation. Personally, I have never understood how anyone can get excited about a report that comes out on September 22 telling you what wages were three months ago. Weren’t they there? weren’t they paying attention?
This report tells us that total employer costs for employee compensation for nonfarm private and state and local government workers averaged $26.86 per hour worked. Wages and salaries made up $18.80 (70%) of the figure; benefits, $8.06 per hour, accounted for the remaining 30 percent.
Costs for legally required benefits, including Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers‚ compensation, averaged $2.17 per hour (8.1 percent of total compensation). Employer costs for life, health, and disability insurance benefits averaged $2.19 (8.1 percent); paid leave benefits (vacations, holidays, sick leave, and other leave) averaged $1.88 (7.0 percent); and retirement and savings benefits averaged $1.15 (4.3 percent) per hour worked.
Interestingly, private industry employer compensation costs averaged $25.16 per hour worked, i.e., government employees make more money that people who actually produce goods and services. Shocking!
Looking ast the breakdown by sector we find that Management, business, and financial workers ($49.62) earned the highest total compensation, followed by teachers ($47.77), and registered nurses ($41.32). At the bottom were office and administrative support ($21.33), transportation and material moving ($20.78), and Service ($14.88). People living on the coasts earned more than people living in the middle of the country. Workers in big companies earned more than workers in small companies.
Show this report to your children.
JR
