Paychecks shrink as Healthcare Costs Rise
If it seems like your paycheck is mysteriously shrinking every year, it’s probably true and it’s certainly not a mystery as health insurance costs continue to climb steadily.
“Our latest report finds a continuing increase in healthcare premium costs for employees, with an emphasis on shifting costs for family members, spouses and dependents, going up at an even higher rate than for employees,” said Julie Stone, a senior consultant at Towers Watson Management.
“Nearly 50 percent of employers are increasing the cost for dependents at a higher rate or faster rate than employees, and here is also a large number of organizations that have implemented the spouse surcharge when the spouse doesn’t have coverage elsewhere,” Stone said.
So how much more do workplace benefits cost, on average?
“Costs have gone up for the last couple of years for employers in the neighborhood of 4 to 4½ percent,” Stone said. “But employees are picking up a good share of that, with the average employee increase over the past five years being 5 percent a year. That may not sound like a lot but it’s twice the CPI, it’s a lot more than people’s salaries are going up, so it’s pretty significant from a paycheck perspective.” (Matthau/NJ101.5)
