State of the industry: Changes in ERISA spend

Where are employers spending their benefit dollars? It's no surprise that health care accounts for the greatest percentage, but as employers look to combat rising health care prices with new solutions (or by cutting back services), what impact is it having on the benefit spend? Utilizing 5500 form data from more than 41,000 plan sponsors between the 2016-2017 plan years, data analyst Eric Ryles, our colleague at ALM's research arm, Judy Diamond Associates, broke it down. "Health leads the way both in terms of raw dollars and percentage of change," he said in a recent webinar. "Everything else saw a smaller increase. Health is the place where the most money is spent, no surprise. But there were significant and traceable changes in dental, vision and other areas." Related: Demystifying benefits spend: How data analytics can help Breaking it down by industry shows some interesting patterns, Ryles said. "At the top, we have administrative support and waste management grew by 13.4 percent year-over-year, which is a huge increase compared to everyone else." What's driving this growth? A deeper dive showed a significant increase in hiring in these sectors, Ryles explained. Aside from that outlier, change was more consistent: the next six industries differed in benefits spend increase by just one percent. "You can see the plurality of industries," Ryles said. "Could any two ind be more different than agriculture and arts and entertainment? The fact that they're in the same band tells me that costs are going up in a way that is measurable and predictable." What other trends or patterns are occurring in employers' benefits spend? Check out the slideshow above to see where benefits spend is increasing the most (and least), and the change in non-health care benefits. Read more: 

• How are employers managing health care costs?
• How much employers spend on their top 5 benefits
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