Payroll per Employee: $149K Information vs $35K Accommodation

Findings

Information leads at $149,198 per employee — driven by software and internet sub-industries

PlainBizBench aggregates Census County Business Patterns 2023 payroll data into the industries table, where the Information sector records $149,198 average annual payroll per employee.US Census Bureau — County Business Patterns 2023 This figure draws from 84,762 state-level rows and 1,097,769 county-level rows in the dataset.US Census Bureau — County Business Patterns 2023 Developers access full benchmarks for Information via Information sector benchmarks.

The industries table holds 2,002 NAICS rows that align IRS SOI 2023 metrics with Census CBP 2023 employment and payroll data.IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) — Business Tax Statistics 2023 Information sector per-employee payroll extends to every NAICS depth from 2-digit to 6-digit codes within these 2,002 rows. Software publishing and internet service providers contribute to the $149,198 sector average in Census CBP 2023 data.

Census CBP 2023 payroll totals divide by employment counts to yield the $149,198 per-employee figure for Information across 1,097,769 county-level rows. The industries table supports queries on 84,762 state-level rows for this sector.IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) — Business Tax Statistics 2023 All 2,002 industries include granular breakdowns under Information.

Information payroll per employee at $149,198 tops the Census CBP 2023 dataset. PlainBizBench structures the industries table to join IRS SOI 2023 data with these employment metrics across 2,002 NAICS rows. County-level granularity in 1,097,769 rows enables local benchmarks tied to the sector average.

Management, Utilities, Finance cluster between the dollar threshold25K and the single-dollar floor30K

Management of Companies and Enterprises averages the unit-receipts marker28,997 annual payroll per employee in Census CBP 2023 data aggregated by PlainBizBench. Utilities follows at the dollar-denominated cutoff27,240 per employee across the same 84,762 state-level rows. Finance and Insurance records the per-dollar reference25,425 per employee in the industries table.

The industries table lists Finance and Insurance at the dollar threshold25,425 per-employee payroll alongside its 20.05% aggregate margin from IRS SOI 2023. This sector ranks fourth overall in compensation within Census CBP 2023 metrics across 1,097,769 county-level rows. View details at Finance and Insurance benchmarks.

Utilities per-employee payroll of the single-dollar floor27,240 derives from Census CBP 2023 employment and payroll columns in 2,002 NAICS rows of the industries table. Management of Companies holds the the unit-receipts marker28,997 figure in the same structure. State-level aggregation covers 84,762 rows for these sectors.

Finance and Insurance pairs the dollar-denominated cutoff25,425 payroll per employee with 20.05% margins in IRS SOI 2023 data joined to Census CBP 2023. Utilities at the per-dollar reference27,240 and Management at the dollar threshold28,997 cluster close in the industries table's 2,002 rows. Utilities sector benchmarks provide full access.

Census CBP 2023 data populates the industries table with the single-dollar floor28,997 for Management across 1,097,769 county-level rows. The the unit-receipts marker27,240 Utilities average and the dollar-denominated cutoff25,425 Finance figure anchor the cluster in 84,762 state-level rows. These metrics support sector comparisons.

The 4x gap: how Accommodation and Food Services anchors the low end

The top five sectors span the per-dollar reference15,081 to roughly the dollar threshold49K in per-employee payroll from Census CBP 2023 data, a $34,117 spread. Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction averages the single-dollar floor15,081 per employee in the industries table's 2,002 NAICS rows. PlainBizBench draws from 1,097,769 county-level rows for these figures.

Census CBP 2023 payroll per employee reaches the high-water Information figure in Information while Mining records the unit-receipts marker15,081 across 84,762 state-level rows. The industries table aligns this $34,117 spread with IRS SOI 2023 data in 2,002 rows. All 24 NAICS sectors reveal the range.

Mining per-employee payroll at the dollar-denominated cutoff15,081 forms the low anchor of the top five in Census CBP 2023. The $34,117 gap to Information's the Information per-employee headline appears in 1,097,769 county-level rows aggregated by PlainBizBench. Industries table queries expose full sector variation.

PlainBizBench structures Census CBP 2023 data to show the $34,117 spread within top sectors across 84,762 state-level rows. Mining's the per-dollar reference15,081 per employee contrasts the approximately one hundred forty-nine thousand dollars Information lead in 2,002 NAICS rows. Dataset granularity supports gap analysis.

The industries table computes per-employee metrics from Census CBP 2023 payroll and employment for all sectors, including the about the dollar threshold15K Mining figure. This enables views of spreads like $34,117 in 1,097,769 county-level rows.

Information's the leading sector compensation level per-employee payroll leads sectors in Census CBP 2023 data aggregated across 84,762 state-level rows and 1,097,769 county-level rows, while Management of Companies at the single-dollar floor28,997, Utilities at the unit-receipts marker27,240, and Finance and Insurance at the dollar-denominated cutoff25,425 form a tight high cluster in the industries table's 2,002 NAICS rows. The top five spread of roughly a thirty-four thousand dollar gap down to Mining's the Mining sector floor of the top five underscores range extremes, with Finance's roughly the per-dollar reference25K pairing 20.05% margins from IRS SOI 2023; full benchmarks live at /industries/ and sector pages.

Cross-source labor-statistics reconciliation notes

Payroll-per-employee figures from Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) and Statistics of US Businesses (SUSB) reflect first-quarter total payroll divided by mid-March employment, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) reports total quarterly wages divided by quarterly average employment from state unemployment-insurance administrative records. The Current Employment Statistics (CES) establishment survey publishes monthly hourly-earnings data while the Current Population Survey (CPS) household survey yields weekly-earnings and median-earnings tabulations on a respondent-self-reported basis. Each source applies its own coverage exclusions: CBP omits agricultural production employment (NAICS 11), railroad employment, and most government employment; QCEW covers only employment subject to unemployment-insurance taxes and excludes certain religious-organization and household-domestic employment; the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey of approximately 200,000 establishments per panel period reports wage distribution percentiles (10th, 25th, median, 75th, 90th) by detailed Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes within NAICS industry. The Department of Labor's National Compensation Survey (NCS) reports total compensation including benefits as Employment Cost Index components. Bureau of Economic Analysis personal-income tabulations report wages-and-salaries, supplements (employer-paid health insurance and retirement contributions), and proprietors' income separately; supplements typically run 28-32% of wages-and-salaries depending on industry. Reading the dollar threshold49K Information versus $35K Accommodation requires noting whether the figure includes part-time-prorated earnings (which differ structurally between knowledge-worker and food-service industries), whether benefits are included, whether overtime and bonus pay are aggregated, and whether the establishment-survey or household-survey sampling frame is the source of record.

Labor-statistics reference notes

Compensation-measurement vocabulary for industry payroll benchmarking: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) tabulates wages by Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) within NAICS industry, publishing 10th, 25th, median, 75th, and 90th percentiles. The National Compensation Survey (NCS) Employment Cost Index tracks wage and benefit cost changes. Total compensation decomposes into wages-and-salaries, paid-leave, supplemental pay, insurance benefits (medical, dental, vision, life, disability), retirement plans (defined-benefit, defined-contribution, profit-sharing), and legally-required benefits (Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, workers' compensation). Median-versus-mean reporting matters because compensation distributions are right-skewed; reporting only mean payroll-per-employee inflates apparent worker pay relative to the typical worker experience. Full-time-equivalent (FTE) conversion adjusts for part-time prevalence: NAICS 72 Accommodation and Food Services runs roughly 30-40% part-time staffing while NAICS 51 Information runs 5-10% part-time, so apparent payroll-per-employee differences partly reflect hours-worked composition. The Bureau of Economic Analysis personal-income wages-and-salaries series reconciles to QCEW tabulations through coverage-difference adjustment. Form W-2 Box 1 wages exclude pre-tax 401(k) contributions, Section 125 cafeteria-plan deductions, and HSA contributions, so W-2-based wage measures understate gross compensation by 5-15% depending on benefit elections. Form 1099-NEC nonemployee-compensation reporting captures independent-contractor payments which are excluded from W-2-based payroll measures; gig-economy industries (NAICS 4853 Taxi and Limousine Service, NAICS 5413 Architectural-Engineering services) under-report total labor income when only W-2 channels are counted. The Davis-Bacon Act prevailing-wage determinations and Service Contract Act wage determinations establish floor wages for federal-procurement contracts; the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act applies to service contracts. State-level prevailing-wage thresholds and minimum-wage floors interact with federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Section 7 overtime rules above 40 hours weekly. Executive Order 14026 sets federal-contractor minimum wage; the FLSA Section 13(a)(1) white-collar exemption (executive, administrative, professional) defines the salaried-exempt threshold. Read our methodology page for source-reconciliation rules.

Tax-and-payroll regulatory reference notes

Federal employment-tax framework governing the wage measures cited above includes Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) Old-Age Survivors Disability Insurance (OASDI) employee + employer portions at 6.2% each up to the annually-indexed Social Security wage base (the single-dollar floor76,100 in 2026), Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) at 1.45% each with no wage cap, the Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on wages above $200,000 (single) / $250,000 (married filing jointly) under Internal Revenue Code Section 3101(b)(2), and Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) at 6.0% on the first $7,000 of wages with state unemployment-tax credit reducing the effective FUTA rate to 0.6%. State unemployment-insurance taxable wage bases range from $7,000 (California, Florida, Tennessee) to $74,000+ (Washington), with experience-rating adjustments based on benefit-charge history. Workers' compensation premium rates vary by industry classification code (NCCI codes for non-monopolistic states; state-specific codes for monopolistic states Wyoming, Ohio, North Dakota, Washington); manufacturing rates run several times higher than office-clerical class codes. Local-jurisdiction occupational privilege taxes (Pennsylvania local-services tax, Oregon Tri-Met transit district payroll taxes, San Francisco gross-receipts payroll-expense tax) layer on top of federal-state burden. Affordable Care Act applicable-large-employer (ALE) status requires monthly aggregation of full-time and full-time-equivalent employees across controlled-group entities under IRC Section 414(b)/(c)/(m)/(o); ALE status triggers Form 1095-C employee-statement reporting and potential employer shared-responsibility payment under IRC Section 4980H. Pension Protection Act funding rules under IRC Section 430 govern defined-benefit-plan minimum required contribution; ERISA reporting under Form 5500 captures plan-year financial condition. SECURE Act 1.0 (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019) and SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 modernized retirement-plan rules including the increased required minimum distribution (RMD) age, mandatory automatic enrollment for new plans starting in 2025, and emergency-savings sidecar accounts. Form W-2 reporting deadline is January 31 with accelerated penalties for late filing under IRC Section 6721. Affordable Care Act Form 1094-C / 1095-C transmittal deadline aligns with W-2. Form 941 quarterly employer-tax reporting reconciles to annual Form 940 and Form W-3 transmittal. Methodology page documents all source data vintages and reconciliation logic across these regulatory frameworks.