Only about 80 percent of what employers pay their workers actually shows up in paychecks.
The rest, according to numbers crunched by the Economic Benefit Research Institute, or EBRI, pays for employee benefits such as retirement plans, health and disability insurance, and other perks often tailored to fit circumstances in individual workplaces.
That works out to about $15,125 in benefits for a household making a national median $60,500 annually; about $12,725 in communities such as Kansas City and Independence, where median incomes hover around $51,000; and $19,900 or more in middle- or upper-income Johnson County suburbs.
Benefits packages also vary widely.
Garmin Ltd. in Olathe, for example, offers a plusher-than-average 75 percent matching contribution on the first 10 percent of the income employees stash in the company’s 401(k) plan and picks up 100 percent of employee premiums for two of three Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans it offers.
About 32 percent of employers, according to 401khelpcenter.com in Portland, Ore., match half of the first 6 percent employees contribute, and 18 percent provide dollar-for-dollar matches up to the first 3 percent to 5 percent of workers’ contributions. Among the more than 60 percent of employers offering health benefits, nearly eight in 10 require workers to pay at least part of the premium, EBRI calculates.
Even a 21st-century real-life equivalent of the fictional Scrooge and Marley offers some benefits. Employers are required by law to pick up half the required tab for Social Security and Medicare, to pay for workers’ compensation insurance and unemployment benefits, and to allow time off for family and medical leave, voting, jury duty or military service.
Few companies, however, can afford to offer packages as austere as that, said Frances King, human resources chief at NIC Inc., an Olathe designer and operator of Web sites for government agencies.
“Benefits packages are part of the culture of a company,” King said. “They are a way a company shows it cares about employees.”
Thus progressive companies — and King counts her employer — tend to offer above-average combinations of basic retirement plan choices; medical, dental and other health plans; disability coverage and life insurance; and special perks that aren’t as widely available outside the company.
NIC, for example, organized dodgeball tournaments — paralleling the NCAA basketball tournament — as a way to build morale, blow off steam and encourage continued participation in a company wellness program. The wellness plan also offers discounted gym memberships and personal trainer and nutritionist services.
“Our benefits package is very employee-driven,” King said.
Other employers offer perks that are tied specifically to their lines of work. H&R Block Inc. offers free tax preparation for its associates and their family members in addition to more than a dozen other more usual retirement, medical and savings plans and other benefits. Waddell & Reed Inc. subsidizes the cost of errors and omissions coverage its financial advisers need for liability coverage.
And while companies’ benefits packages are as distinct as DNA, they all have at least one thing in common, reports Joe Sevcik, marketing vice president at Assurant Employee Benefits, a Kansas City provider of nonmedical insurance and other benefits plans to small and midsize businesses.
“Medical cost increases are starting to take a toll on all sizes of businesses,” Sevcik said.
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