While most discussions of healthcare focus on the problems and challenges that businesses and individuals face, most workers with employee benefits that provide coverage are satisfied with them.
Premiums and out-of-pocket costs have gone up in recent years, The National Business Group on Health (NBGH) notes. Despite that, 63 percent of workers in a survey indicated that they are very satisfied with health coverage provided by their employer or union. More than one-third say they are happier with their coverage than they were three years ago, with only 12 percent expressing the opposite point of view and the majority saying their opinions have not changed significantly.
Researchers found that workers' awareness of benefits may have grown in some respects, with almost 80 percent saying retirement benefits are very important to their employment decisions, up from less than two-thirds in 2007. Even more of them – nearly 90 percent – said health benefits impact their decisions on whether to remain in a current position or accept a new job.
The recession has caused people to rethink their attitudes toward benefits and compensation, according to NBGH. Slightly more importance is being placed on retirement benefits, with employees indicating fewer of them would sacrifice them in favor of health benefits. Despite this, salaries remain the leading concern in terms of compensation, followed by health insurance and then retirement benefits.
Compensation attitudes reflect confidence in employers, economic concerns
Workers' perception of the value of employer-sponsored coverage may be caused partly by how they see their own abilities. Many are not confident in their ability to shop for coverage, and most think their employer does a better job than they would. This belief persists despite the fact that nearly two-thirds cannot estimate how much their employer pays for coverage.
"Although employees would like to see their retirement benefits improved, and may feel their retirement savings have suffered over the past five years, they aren’t willing to have that improvement come at the expense of their health benefits or even salary," said Helen Darling, president and CEO of NBGH. "The weakened economy and higher unexpendable expenses such as gas and commuting have likely put pressure on just how far their take home pay can go."
Employee benefit consultants and compensation experts may be able to help firms balance salaries against different benefit offerings to ensure employee needs are met. With the economy recovering slowly, doing so may be challenging for some time.
