The report contains data from 162 US and Canadian EMS and OEM facilities. The study’s findings show that in 2015, participating companies’ organizational wage and salary budgets increased at an average rate of 2.5 percent for hourly employees and 2.0 percent for salaried and management employees. Their projected increases for 2016 are just slightly above last year’s increases.

Benefit costs in 2015 averaged 19.4 percent of total wages. Most of the companies that participated in the survey provide retirement benefits to their employees. In 2015, 401'000 plans were offered by 70 percent of those companies.

The study also shows that reporting companies pay more than half of their employees’ medical insurance premiums, on average. In addition, more than half of the reporting companies offer employees paid leave in the form of personal time off (PTO) plans.