5. Industry Variations FRINGE BENEfit payments varied widely from industry to industry. Hotels paid 13.4%, textile products and apparel 17.4%, and pulp, paper, lumber and furniture paid 17.5%. Banks, finance and trust companies paid 31.7%, the petroleum industry paid 27.3%, and insurance companies paid 26.7%. But this should not be interpreted to mean that some industries (or companies) are laggard, because in many cases both the employer and the workers may prefer to have income reflected entirely or chiefly in the pay envelope. Expressed as cents per payroll hour, payments ranged from 16.0¢ for hotels to 78.2¢ for the petroleum industry. Annual dollars per employee varied from $354 for hotels to $1650 for the petroleum industry. The proportionate amount paid for various types of benefits also showed wide ranges. Legally required payments constituted over one-third of the total fringe payments for hotels, but less than onetenth the total for the petroleum industry. Pension and other agreed-upon payments made up less than TABLE 5. Major Types of Fringe Payments by Industry Groups, 1957 |