Nosy American workers that we are, we like to know what everyone around us is making.

Our yearning to compare salaries is unflagging.  To some, it seems like a birthright to know if we are making more---or less---than a co-worker or acquaintance.  Some of us even inflate our stated salaries  if that will make us more presentable to the outside world.

The truth is that most of us don't even know how much we make.

Sure we know if we're making $5.75 an hour or $70,000 a year, but most of us don't have a clue how much our employers pay for other benefits we receive.

One consulting firm estimated that U.S. employers spend $1.5 trillion a year on employee benefits, but that $750 million of those benefits are disregarded by employees, making them worthless.

Currently, only about one-quarter of U.S. companies even make an attempt to educate their employees on the value of their benefits says Rob Oberst of Tri-Ad, an Escondido benefits consultant.

But as the labor pool has evaporated, employers are finding it in their best interest to display the value of their employee benefits to attract potential workers and retain existing employees.

"I'm kind of surprised it went out of vogue for a while, Oberst says.  It seemed to be pretty common about 10 years ago, but I guess employers didn't feel the need when there were plenty of workers to go around."

The value of benefits
Whether an employer provides a simple chart of how much benefits are valued at or an elaborate full-color brochure with visual displays of the value of various benefits, doesn't seem to matter.  What does matter is that the employee's attention is called to the value of the benefits.

Human resources departments refer to these benefit rundowns as total compensation statements.

Let's look at the statement of John Doe a worker with an annual salary of $40,000.  In addition to providing sick days. holidays, and vacation time, Doe's employer pays $3,372 for mandate benefits such as worker's compensation, unemployment insurance and Social Security taxes.  It also pays $541 a year for disability and life insurance premiums.

Then there's $2,280 for the company's contribution to Doe's medical, dental and vision coverage.

His company also gives him $1,200 a year in a 50 percent match to the 6 percent of his salary that Doe places in a 401(k) investment plan.

And, then there are other benefits: $2,000 for tuition assistance, a $600 company contribution for child care and a $300 annual payment as a health club subsidy to promotes Doe's good health.

All together, Doe's compensation package is $49,293 or 23 percent more than Doe thought he was being paid.

Most companies provide benefits equivalent to one-quarter to one-third of an employee's annual salary,  Oberst says.  It is most common to find these calculations in larger companies.

They care, they really care
Still, he wonders why companies aren't more interested in sharing this information with their workers.

"It can be very effective in showing the employee that you care about them as a person," he says.  "That seems like something you'd want to do as an employer."

Employees benefit s are worthless if employees don't understand and appreciate their value.  Too often, however, companies haven't done a good job of communicating the value of those benefits. 

Oberst has seen signs in San Diego recently that companies are awakening to the significance of this.

"You see a lot of high-tech companies now explaining to potential employees how much their benefits are actually worth," he says.   "It's become so competitive that these companies are trying to make themselves appear as attractive as possible for recruitment."

As long as we're interested in each other's salaries, doesn't it make sense that we all understand how much we're actually being paid?  Who knows, we might even feel better about our jobs if we do.