Employer costs for paid leave benefits were highest for management, professional and related occupations, $4.09 per hour, or 8.4 percent of total compensation, in December 2008. This is according to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Costs were lowest among service occupations, 57 cents, or 4.3 percent of total compensation.
Among all workers, paid leave benefits averaged $1.85, or 6.8 percent of the total.
Paid leave benefit costs are often directly linked to wages; therefore, higher paid occupations or industries will typically show higher estimates for this compensation component. Paid leave includes vacations, holidays, sick leave, and other leave such as personal leave, military leave, and funeral leave.
This data is from the National Compensation Survey’s Compensation Cost Trends program. To learn more about employer costs for employee wages, salaries and benefits, see "Employer Costs for Employee Compensation - December 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 09-0247.
