Employment Costs

World-Wide Hourly Compensation Comparison

December 21, 2011 by Tim McMahon

The 2010 worldwide hourly compensation cost comparison is finally in. So we can see how the wages stack up between 34 different countries. Not surprisingly many European Countries have higher employment costs than the U.S. because of their massive social programs. This of course makes them less competitive in the world market. Surprisingly, in 2010 the U.K. actually had lower total employment costs than the U.S. Of course when it comes to standard of living, Wages and Social programs are only half of the equation. The other half of course is the cost of living. A low cost of living country doesn’t need the same wages in order to have the same standard of living.

Let’s look at the wage levels in various countries [Read more…] about World-Wide Hourly Compensation Comparison

Compensation Costs Up in September 0.3 Percent

October 29, 2011 by Tim McMahon

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the compensation costs for U. S. civilian workers on Friday October 28th. Wages and salaries are up 0.3% or roughly 1/3rd of 1% for the month. This represents 70% of the total of the cost of maintaining employees. The remaining 30% of the cost comes from benefits and they rose 0.1% over the month.

On an annual basis, employment costs have risen 2.0% for the 12 months ending September 2011. This is compared to an annual inflation rate of 3.87% based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U. This is the most widely used measure of inflation. So even though costs rose almost 3.9% wages only rose 2% leaving the average wage earner 1.87% worse off than last year. This of course is not as bad as the nearly 10 of the working population that is currently unemployed.

Workers Compensation Costs for December 2010

January 28, 2011 by Tim McMahon

January 28,2011

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the data on compensation costs today.

Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 2.0 percent for the 12-month period ending December 2010. The majority of the increase came from an increase in benefits costs, i.e. primarily retirement costs. Benefits costs were up 2.9% compared to a 1.6% increase in wages and salaries.

During the previous year (2009) the increase in compensation costs was 1.4 percent.

Total Compensation Costs

July 30, 2010 by Tim McMahon

From The Bureau of Labor Statistics

Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 1.8 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2010 while the overall inflation rate (CPI-U) was only 1.05%. This was the same Compensation cost increase as the 12-month period ending in June 2009. Wages and salaries increased 1.6 percent for the current 12-month period, compared to a 1.8 percent increase for the 12-month period ending in June 2009. Benefit costs rose 2.5 percent, up from a 1.8 percent increase for the 12-month period ending June 2009.