As Connecticut and other New England employers grapple with reining in hiring costs, federal statisticians are just in time to pour more ice water on their efforts.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the Census Bureau found New England’s total compensation costs at $33.49 an hour in September led the nation’s nine statistical regions. The East South Central division — Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee — was the lowest at $22.82.
Overall, compensation costs among private industry employers in the U.S. averaged $28.24 per hour worked that month, according to the agency’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Of total hourly compensation costs in New England, $23.61, or 70.5 percent, was spent on wages and salaries, while $9.88, or 29.5 percent went towards employee benefits, the bureau said. Nationally, wages and salaries also accounted for 70.5 percent of total compensation costs, and benefits, 29.5 percent.
In New England, the highest-cost benefits included health insurance at $2.47 and Social Security and Medicare at $1.96 per hour worked. The lowest-cost benefit was federal unemployment insurance, at 2 cents per hour worked.
