U.S. workers cost employers nearly $30 an hour on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 70% of that is pay and the rest benefits. Government workers cost a whopping $40 an hour. Private industry employees, which make up a much larger percentage of the work force, are less expensive at $28 an hour.

That means private-industry workers cost around $58,000 a year, on average. The median S&P 500 company has 16,000 employees, which suggests a typical payroll of nearly $1 billion. Median yearly sales for S&P 500 companies are just over $6 billion. From that must be subtracted not only pay, but also the cost of materials, research, finance charges, taxes and more. All of this is to say that companies that generate robust sales and profits using relatively few employees enjoy a sizable advantage over peers that don't.

The three companies below, all S&P 500 members, reported sales and profits per employee over the past year that topped industry averages by at least 50%. Note that averages can vary sharply from one industry to another. Big retail chains need vast armies of workers to operate. Money-management firms need relatively few.

Goldman Sachs Group

Profits per employee: $375,538
Average for investment firms: $202,318

The oversized bonuses of Wall Street have received plenty of attention over the last two years, largely because of government programs that bolstered industry profits at the expense of taxpayers while putting them at risk. Pay for such workers has long been generous, largely because the trading arms of financial firms don't design, make, market or transport much of anything. They consist of profits and pay, and not much else. Pay is so large a component of costs for the group that shareholders of investment firms often judge performance using the ratio of compensation and benefits spending to net revenues. In its most recent quarter, Goldman Sachs had a ratio of 43%, about five percentage points below Street estimates and seven percentage points below its year-earlier level. Political pressure on Goldman to rein in pay seems to have benefitted shareholders. The stock climbed from $84 and change at the end of 2008 to about $147 at the close of trading Wednesday.

Coach

Profits per employee: $167,123
Average for apparel and accessories stores: $40,916

Coach sells handbags at prices that are separated by far from its cost of production. That allows the company to turn more than 30 cents of each sales dollar into operating profit. It also allowed management to adjust quickly to the recent downturn in consumer spending and the corresponding sales plunge at longstanding Coach stores in late 2008 by reducing the number of bags it carries and increasing the percentage of them that are offered for less than $300. Same-store sales have recently increased and the company's return on capital and its stock price are near prerecession levels. Coach recently doubled its dividend payment to a level that still looks low relative to profits, but that nonetheless gives shares a 1.7% yield at present.

Google

Profits per employee: $373,391
Average for computer services companies: $143,477

You'd think a company that just this morning advised me on driving directions and steak marinades while delivering messages from friends and family would need a big staff to handle my demands, but of course, Google uses a relatively small work force less than one-quarter the size of Microsoft to design its programs and harness the know-how of the Internet. Google should run a web search on something called a dividend; the company has a cash hoard of more than $90 a share that ought to be returned to stockholders before it's spent on something expensive and unnecessary. Beyond that, it's difficult to find fault with the company's financial performance. Its sales growth is healthy, its profit margins are plump and its share price, although nominally high at more than $470, is reasonable compared with profits, especially after subtracting for the company's cash.