{"schemaVersion":"1.0","id":"rs-2026-009","slug":"payroll-to-revenue-ratio-by-industry","title":"Payroll-to-Revenue Ratio by Industry: 2022 Census Data","headline":"Health Care Payroll Was 39.7% of Receipts — 6.4 Times Wholesale Trade","summary":"Payroll was 39.7% of receipts in Health Care and Social Assistance. In Wholesale Trade, it was 6.3%. That made the first rate 6.4 times as high.","published":"2026-08-13","modified":"2026-08-13","status":"published","supersedes":null,"supersededBy":null,"topic":{"slug":"operating-economics","label":"Operating economics"},"subtopics":["payroll","receipts","industry comparison","firms under 500 employees"],"country":"United States","geographyLevel":"National","geographies":["United States"],"period":"2022","metric":"Annual payroll as a share of receipts","provenance":{"primarySources":[{"agency":"U.S. Census Bureau","dataset":"2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses Annual Data Tables by Establishment Industry","period":"2022","role":"Annual payroll and receipts for firms with fewer than 500 employees","releaseUrl":"https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2022/econ/susb/2022-susb-annual.html","dataUrl":"https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/susb/tables/2022/us_state_6digitnaics_2022.xlsx"},{"agency":"U.S. Census Bureau","dataset":"About Statistics of U.S. Businesses","period":"Current","role":"Program coverage and definitions","url":"https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/susb/about.html"}],"contextSources":[]},"transformation":{"calculationType":"calculated","formula":"Annual payroll ÷ receipts × 100","filters":["United States","2022","Firms with fewer than 500 employees"],"transformations":["Use annual payroll and receipts from the same table and year.","Divide annual payroll by receipts and multiply by 100.","Round each public rate to one decimal place."]},"findings":[{"claim":"Health Care and Social Assistance annual payroll","value":458406.878,"unit":"USD millions","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"Health Care and Social Assistance receipts","value":1153451.413,"unit":"USD millions","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"Health Care and Social Assistance payroll share","value":39.7421922444,"unit":"percent","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"Wholesale Trade annual payroll","value":244037.194,"unit":"USD millions","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"Wholesale Trade receipts","value":3902185.86,"unit":"USD millions","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"Wholesale Trade payroll share","value":6.2538588052,"unit":"percent","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"Health Care to Wholesale Trade relative multiple","value":6.3548272327,"unit":"times","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"Health Care to Wholesale Trade percentage-point gap","value":33.4883334392,"unit":"percentage points","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"All industries annual payroll","value":3465049.519,"unit":"USD millions","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"All industries receipts","value":17779171.396,"unit":"USD millions","geography":"United States"},{"claim":"All industries payroll share","value":19.4893757522,"unit":"percent","geography":"United States"}],"limitations":["The data cover firms with paid staff.","They do not cover all firms with no paid staff.","Census payroll measures employee pay. It does not include every labor cost.","For some firms, owner or partner pay is not part of payroll.","Census may count some receipts more than once for firms with many sites.","The data do not tell us why the difference between industries exists."],"keywords":["payroll-to-revenue ratio by industry","payroll share of receipts","Health Care payroll","Wholesale Trade payroll","Statistics of U.S. Businesses"],"aliases":["payroll to receipts ratio","industry payroll benchmark","SUSB payroll"],"citation":"RecurSave. “Health Care Payroll Was 39.7% of Receipts — 6.4 Times Wholesale Trade.” RecurSave Research, August 13, 2026.","canonicalUrl":"https://www.recursave.com/research/payroll-to-revenue-ratio-by-industry","hasDataset":false,"metaDescription":"Payroll was 39.7% of receipts in Health Care and Social Assistance firms under 500 employees. In Wholesale Trade, it was 6.3%."}