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& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | SEPTEMBER 25, 1998 STAFF & BENEFITS A Middle Ground On Fringe Benefits
Still, there are some common denominators. Take a look at these two benchmark studies, which examine benefits offered to employees of small businesses. Chances are that your rivals will be offering something similar, and a good employee will want benefits in line with those averages. The first study, issued in 1996 by the U.S. Labor Dept., looked at participation in employee benefit programs by 36 million full-time employees of small private companies. The No. 1 benefit was no surprise: paid time off for vacations, offered to 88% of all employees and more than 90% of professional, technical, clerical, and sales employees. Paid holidays came in close behind, at 82% of all workers. Those benefits are pretty much taken for granted. Among the more "optional" benefits, a health plan has universal appeal regardless of age. Well over half of all small-businesses employees, 61%, have employer-sponsored health plans, and the number soars to 80% among professional and technical workers. The message: If you don't offer one, you'll be at a disadvantage four out of five times when you're hiring or trying to retain a prized staffer. Retirement plans are also popular, especially with professional and technical workers. So what does a "typical" small-business package look like? A 1998 survey by the Employee Benefits Research Institute might provide some insight--and the package is not likely to be cheap. The nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., looked at small businesses that offered retirement plans and asked what other benefits they offered. The results seem generous indeed: 97% with a retirement plan also offered health coverage (although, oddly enough, only 72% offered paid sick leave). Virtually all, 99%, offer paid vacations, and more than half tossed in life and disability insurance. For details of these studies, see our Benefit Benchmarks table.  Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | SEPTEMBER |
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