August 15, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Bigger establishment, usually better benefits
Employers’
outlays for benefits, both in dollar amounts and as a percent of total
compensation, increase with establishment size. There are some benefits,
however, in which employees of small establishments are roughly as likely
to participate as are employees of medium and large establishments.
[Chart data—TXT]
As an example of the more generous benefits
in larger companies, about 12 percent of workers in establishments with
fewer than 100 employees participated in a defined-benefit pension plan.
The corresponding figure among workers in medium and large establishments
was almost 4 times as great at 45 percent. Other benefits in which
employees of larger plants were at least twice as likely to participate
included military leave, long-term disability insurance, dental insurance,
and unpaid family leave. (These benefits are shown in blue in the chart.)
There were some benefits in which employees
of larger and smaller establishments participated at about the same rates.
Examples included paid family leave, medical care, vacations, holidays,
and sick leave.
These data are the products of the Employee
Benefit Survey and the Employment
Cost Trends program. Read more
about benefit participation in "Private Sector Employee Benefits,
1996-97" (PDF
38K), by Ann C. Foster, Compensation and Working Conditions,
Summer 2000.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »