Private workers in Connecticut and other Northeast states earned slightly less on average last Christmas than the year before, but their $31.63 an hour, including salary, benefits and paid leave, still leads the nation, the federal government says.
Quarterly Northeast wages and salaries were down 0.8 percent from an hourly average of $31.87 in December 2009, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Out West, workers’ pay averaged $29.78 an hour to close the fourth quarter, followed by $26.78 in the Midwest, and $24.83 down South, BLS said. A year earlier, West workers averaged $29.47; Midwest, $26.10; and the South, $24.47, the BLS said.
Northeast wages and salaries, at $22.04 an hour, made up 69.7 percent of total compensation costs. Benefits costs, at $9.59, accounted for the remaining 30.3 percent, the BLS said.
The Northeast’s other compensation categories, too, are the highest in the land, BLS data shows.
Insurance, which includes life, health, and short- and long-term disability, averaged $2.60 per hour worked and represented 8.2 percent of all compensation costs.
Legally required benefits, such as Social Security, workers’compensation, and unemployment insurance, averaged $2.58 per hour in the Northeast and represented 8.2 percent of total compensation costs.
Paid time off, including vacation, holiday, sick, and personal leave, was $2.33 per hour, or 7.4 percent of total compensation costs.
Nationally, December private wages and salaries averaged $19.64, accounting for 70.8 percent of these costs, while benefits, at $8.11, made up the remaining 29.2 percent.
Wages and salaries alone averaged $21.13 in the West; $18.75 in the Midwest; and $17.89 in the South.
