KANSAS CITY – The Southwest Office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has released Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for the Regions – March 2025. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that private industry employer costs for employee compensation among the four regions of the country ranged from $39.71 per hour in the South to $56.31 in the Northeast. (See chart 1.)
In the Northeast, hourly total compensation costs in March 2025 were comprised of the following: wages and salaries ($38.99) made up 69.2 percent, while total benefits ($17.33) accounted for the remaining 30.8 percent of compensation costs.
Paid leave, which includes vacation, holiday, sick, and personal leave, averaged $4.70 per hour worked, or 8.3 percent of all compensation costs. Costs for insurance, which include life, health, and short- and long-term disability, averaged $4.37 per hour worked, accounting for 7.8 percent of total compensation costs.
Legally required benefits, which include Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance (both state and federal), and workers’ compensation, averaged $4.01 per hour and represented 7.1 percent of total compensation costs.
In the West, hourly wages and salaries averaged $34.73 and accounted for 70.2 percent of all compensation costs. Total benefits averaged $14.77, or 29.8 percent of compensation costs.
Paid leave averaged $3.80 per hour, or 7.7 percent of compensation costs.
Legally required benefits costs were $3.77 per hour, or 7.6 percent of regional compensation costs.
Insurance costs averaged $3.42 per hour, accounting for 6.9 percent of total compensation costs in the West.
The Midwest region recorded an hourly wage and salary average of $29.01 in March 2025, representing 69.4 percent of all compensation costs.
Total benefits averaged $12.80 and accounted for the remaining 30.6 percent of total compensation costs.
The three highest major categories for employer benefits in the Midwest were insurance benefits, at $3.40 per hour worked (8.1 percent), legally required benefits at $3.03 and paid leave at $3.00, each comprising 7.2 percent of total employer compensation costs.
In the South, wages and salaries averaged $28.48 per hour and comprised 71.7 percent of total employer compensation costs, while benefits, at $11.23 per hour, accounted for the remaining 28.3 percent.
Paid leave averaged $2.86 per hour worked, followed by legally required benefits at $2.81 per hour; these categories accounted for 7.2 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively, of total compensation costs in the South. Insurance benefits costs were the third-highest benefit cost and averaged $2.76 per hour, accounting for 6.9 percent of employer compensation for the region.
Overall, compensation costs among private industry employers in the United States averaged $45.38 per hour worked in March 2025. Wages and salaries, at $31.89 per hour, accounted for 70.3 percent of these costs, while benefits, at $13.49, made up the remaining 29.7 percent.