US wages and benefits grew 0.7 percent in third quarter

WASHINGTON –  U.S. workers' wages and benefits grew faster in the third quarter.

The Labor Department says total compensation was up 0.7 percent from July through September after growing 0.5 percent in the second quarter.

Wages and salaries, which account for about 70 percent of compensation costs, rose 0.7 percent. Benefits, including pensions and health insurance, were up 0.8 percent.

Pay had been slow to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009 even as employers resumed hiring and unemployment fell.

But wage growth perked up in September, according to an earlier Labor Department report, rising 2.9 percent from a year earlier. Some of the pay pickup was caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which sidelined low-wage workers in Texas and Florida, making higher-paid workers a disproportionate share of the labor force.

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