Employer compensation in the United States refers to the cash compensation and benefits that an employee receives in exchange for the service they perform for their employer. Approximately 93% of the working population in the United States are employees earning a salary or wage. Typically, cash compensation consists of a wage or salary, and may include commissions or bonuses. Benefits consist of retirement plans, health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, vacation, employee stock ownership plans, etc. Compensation can be fixed and/or variable, and is often both. Variable pay is based on the performance of the employee. Commissions, incentives, and bonuses are forms of variable pay. Benefits can also be divided into company-paid and employee-paid. Some, such as holiday pay, vacation pay, etc., are usually paid for by the firm. Others are often paid, at least in part, by employees—a notable example is medical insurance. Compensation in the US (as in all countries) is shaped by law, tax policy, and history. Health insurance is a common employee benefit because there is no government-sponsored national health insurance in the United States, and premiums are deductible on personal income tax. 401(k) accounts are a common employer organized program for retirement savings because of their tax benefits. Salaries, wages, commissions Salary, bonuses, and non-equity incentives are often called "Total Cash Compensation". Wages Wage data (e.g. median wages) for different occupations in the US can be found from the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, broken down into subgroups (e.g. marketing managers, financial managers, etc.) by state, metropolitan areas, and gender. In the United States, wages for most workers are set by market forces, or else by collective bargaining, where a labor union negotiates on the workers' behalf. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes a minimum wage at the federal level that all states must abide by, among other provisions. Fourteen states and a number of cities have set their own minimum wage rates that are higher than the federal level. For certain federal or state government contracts, employers must pay the so-called prevailing wage as determined according to the Davis-Bacon Act or its state equivalent. Activists have undertaken to promote the idea of a living wage rate which accounts for living expenses and other basic necessities, setting the living wage rate much higher than current minimum wage laws require. "The FLSA requires that most employees in the United States be paid