Voluntary and other ancillary employee benefits are expected to play a bigger role in the years ahead as companies compete for talent, according to the preliminary results of an employer survey by United Benefits Advisors.
Not surprisingly, UBA's 2013 Health Plan Survey, based on responses of nearly 12,000 employers, found vast differences in ancillary benefits offered by employer size, region and industry.
For example, only .5 percent of the employers in the survey offer on-site clinics, though that figure jumps to 7.4 percent among employers with more than 500 employees.
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Perks such as pet insurance underscored similar differences, with 8 percent of employers with 1,000 or more employees offering this benefit, but less than .5 percent of smaller employers with fewer than 200 employees included it in their benefits packages.
Other highlights from the survey include:
- Nearly three-quarters of all employers responding offer dental coverage, with almost all large employers providing the benefit.
- A regional breakdown shows membership discounts are most popular in the Northeast, where more than 5 percent of employers offer the benefit to individuals compared to less than 2 percent in the central part of the country.
- Ninety-five percent of businesses with more than 500 employees offered group-term life insurance, yet only 56 percent with fewer than 50 employees offered this benefit.
- An industry breakdown of short-term disability coverage shows that 37 percent of employers responding in all major industries offer the coverage.
- The construction, agriculture and mining industries offer long-term disability insurance much less often (31 percent) than the national average (45.9 percent).
UBA, an Indianapolis-based independent employee benefits group with members in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., said it plans to release the full survey later this spring.
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