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In FY12 Amtrak's salaries, wages and benefits cost the company a tad over $2 billion. They chewed up 50.4 per  cent of operating expenses and 70.7 per cent of operating revenues. Amtrak's primary commercial competitors are domestic airlines and bus companies. The financials for two of the country's major airlines:  Southwest and United Continental; and two of the country's intercity bus companies: Greyhound and Megabus were reviewed. They probably are typical for their industry. Salaries, wages, and benefits at Southwest accounted for 28.8 per cent of FY12 operating expenses and 27.8 per cent of operating revenues.  At United these items accounted for 21.4 per cent of operating expenses and 21.3 per cent of operating revenues. Getting data for Greyhound and Megabus is a tad more difficult because they are owned by First Group and Stagecoach Group.  Both are UK companies.  Assuming that the salaries, wages, and benefits for the aforementioned segments are in line with those for the company as a whole, staff costs for Greyhound were approximately 46.1 per cent of operating expenses and 43 per cent of revenues in FY12.  The numbers are similar for Stagecoach, i.e. 40.1 per cent of operating expenses and 38 per cent of revenues.  However, given the difference in accounting rules, i.e. what is included in the UK that is not necessarily included in the U.S., as well as a different mix in their portfolio of businesses, this is not an absolute apples to apples comparison. It is an approximation. Amtrak employs in-house maintenance personnel.  So too do the airlines and bus companies. But most of the track work for Amtrak is contracted out.  Thus, the compensation expenses for the contractors would be embedded in the billings from them. The cost of maintenance of airports and highways is charged to the owners and flows through to the users in fees. Recognizing that the freight carriers are different businesses than Amtrak, I thought it would be interesting to look at their compensation expenses.  In FY12 Norfolk Southern's compensation and benefits expenses were 37.4 per cent of operating expenses and 26.8 per cent of operating revenues.  For the Kansas City Southern the numbers were 28.3 and 19.2 per cent. Comparing expenses across companies, especially when they stem from other countries or companies with a different mission, is dicy.  Nevertheless, it appears that Amtrak's compensation expenses are high relative to those of its major competitors.
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