Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.4 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the 3-month period ending June 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Wages and salaries--which make up about 70 percent of compensation--also increased 0.4 percent for the 3-month period ending June 2009. Benefit costs--which make up the remaining 30 percent of compensation--increased 0.3 percent.
Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 1.8 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2009. This was smaller than the 3.1 percent increase for the 12-month period ending in June 2008. Wages and salaries increased 1.8 percent for the current 12-month period, slowing from a 3.2 percent increase for the 12-month period ending in June 2008. Benefit costs rose 1.8 percent, down from a 2.9 percent increase for the 12-month period ending June 2008.
Private Industry Worker Data
Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 1.5 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2009. This is the smallest percent change published for this series since it began in 1980. The deceleration of cost increases was evident in both wages and salaries as well as benefits, registering the smallest increases published
in the series history. The wage and salary series, which began in 1975, increased 1.6 percent for the current 12-month period. The cost of benefits, which has been measured since 1980, increased 1.3 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2009. Employer costs for health benefits increased 4.4 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2009. In June 2008, the 12-month percent change was 4.2 percent.
Among occupational groups, compensation cost increases for private industry workers for the 12-month period ending June 2009 ranged from 0.7 percent for sales and office workers to 2.0 percent for both production, transportation, and material moving occupations and service occupations.
Among industries, compensation cost increases for private industry workers for the current 12-month period ranged from 0.6 percent for financial activities to 2.5 percent for the leisure and hospitality industry.
