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December 1990, Vol. 113, No. 12
How firm size and industry affect employee benefits
Thomas P. Burke and John D. Morton
Although a majority of U.S. workers receive paid
leave, insurance, and retirement benefits from their employers, the incidence and
characteristics of these benefits vary significantly by industry group and size of
establishment. This conclusion stems from a comparison of benefits for full-time
employees in goods-producing and service-producing industries, and in establishments
employing 100 to 499 workers and those with 500 or more workers. The analysis shows that:
- Employees in goods-producing industries and larger establishments, on the
whole, are more likely to have medical coverage than are their counterparts in
service-producing industries and smaller establishments.
- While nearly three-quarters of all full-time workers in goods-producing
industries and in larger establishments are covered by defined benefit pension plans,
about half of those in service-producing industries and smaller establishments have such
plans.
- Types of coverage of short-term disability vary by industry group:
Employees in goods-producing industries are more likely to receive sickness and accident
insurance than those in service-producing industries, where paid sick leave is the more
prevalent practice.
- There is wide variation in benefits coverage within establishment-size
and industrial groupings. Service-producing industries, for example, include
transportation and public utilities firms, with almost universal benefits coverage, and
retail trade establishments, in which coverage is much less extensive.
This excerpt is from an article published in the December 1990 issue of
the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe
Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file
for more information.
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Small businesses and their
employees.—Oct.
1994.
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