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Don't Think Pay. Think Total Compensation
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Benefits for your employees add a big chunk to what you're paying them
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Rule of thumb for managers: Expect that about 25 cents of every dollar you spend on employee compensation will go to benefits, not salary. And the smaller the company, the smaller the payout. That's the word from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which just published its annual look at employer costs for staff compensation.
Compensation costs varied by industry, occupational group, region, and whether employees are full or part time. But on average, enterprises with fewer than 100 employees offer pay of $12.95 an hour and total compensation of $17.16. Pay at the biggest outfits, those with a workforce of 500 or more, is $18.70 an hour, and total compensation is $26.93.
When it comes to benefits, small businesses lag furthest behind the large ones in paid leave, allotting an average of 92 cents an hour for the benefit, or 42% of the $2.18 offered by large employers.
UNCLE SAM'S SHARE. Rounding out the total compensation at small businesses is an average of $4.21 an hour for benefit costs. Here's the breakdown: 92 cents an hour (7.1% of total compensation) goes for vacation and other paid leave; 47 cents (3.6%) for supplemental pay such as bonuses; 89 cents (6.9%) for health, disability, and other types of insurance; and 40 cents (3.1%) for retirement and other savings.
The biggest chunk -- $1.53, or 11.8% -- goes to Uncle Sam and his counterparts in the states for employee programs such as Social Security, workers' compensation, and unemployment insurance.
By
Pamela Mendels
in New York
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Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P.