KemLaw

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) annually conducts a survey of U.S. employers to gather information on the types of benefits employers offer their employees. Companies of every size and geographic location are included in the study each year.

Overall, SHRM is finding that with unemployment rates down substantially in most parts of the country, employers appear to be aggressively leveraging employee benefits to attract and retain talent.

Here are excerpts of what SHRM found in their most recent report:

• Organizations that use benefits as a strategic tool for recruiting and retaining talent reported better overall company performance and above-average effectiveness in recruitment and retention compared with organizations that did not.
• Seventy-two percent of businesses increased benefit offerings to retain employees in the last 12 months.
• The vast majority of organizations offer health care coverage to full-time employees (99%), dependent children (98%), opposite-sex spouses (94%) and same-sex spouses (85%). Likely due to the implementation of the ACA, substantial increases in the prevalence of health care coverage have been seen for several groups since 2014, including opposite-sex spouses (23 percentage points), same-sex spouses (39 percentage points), opposite-sex domestic partners (25 percentage points), same-sex domestic partners (20 percentage points), foster children (32 percentage points), nondependent children (29 percentage points) and dependent grandchildren (23 percentage points); coverage for part-time employees increased by 10 percentage points and dependent children by six percentage points.
• Health savings accounts are becoming more prevalent.
• Of organizations that increased benefits offerings in the last 12 months, 44% increased their wellness benefits.
• Ninety-six percent of organizations offer vacation benefits to full-time employees; almost one-half (46%) offered the same to part-time employees.
• Compared with vacation, 78% of organizations offer sick leave to full-time employees.
• The prevalence of paid parental leave increased significantly between 2016 and 2018 for every type of parental leave assessed.
• Ninety-five percent of businesses offer one or more retirement plans to their employees. Traditional 401(k)s or similar defined retirement savings plans were the most popular with 93% of organizations offering this benefit, up from 90% in 2017.
• Seventy percent of organizations offer some type of telecommuting, either on a full-time, a part-time and/or an ad-hoc basis, up from 62% last year and 59% in 2014.
• Overall, housing and relocation benefits are the least common benefit compared with other categories. Since 2014, prevalence rates for several housing and relocation benefits fell.

If you are an employer in Connecticut and have questions about how to handle wages and benefits or have questions about other labor and employment law issues, contact the attorneys at Kainen, Escalera & McHale.  We do one thing and one thing only – we are an employer defense law firm – in fact, we are one of the largest employer defense law firms in the region.  What’s more, each of our attorneys has over 20 years of experience in employment and labor law matters and can provide your business with comprehensive legal counsel ranging from assistance with necessary preventive measures to trial advocacy.  Please call us if we can help you.

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