“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Benjamin Franklin (source)
There’s no denying that health insurance plays a huge role in accepting a position. Employers looking for the top talent need to be able to provide not only a competitive salary, but also an equally impressive healthcare package.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that benefits play a huge part in the total cost of employment. In March of 2014 the total hourly cost of an employee was $31.93 an hour, with $9.97 of that cost going directly to benefits (source). To the employer the cost of benefits is almost a third of the total cost!
So what health benefits are most available to ACS chemists? The annual “ACS Comprehensive Salary and Employment Survey” has been tracking healthcare benefits provided to chemists for almost a decade. In 2014, the top available healthcare benefits were family and employee Medical/Dental/Vision coverage along with a prescription drug program. These benefits were available to at least four-in-five ACS chemists. Medical coverage for the primary employee was available to almost everyone (96%).
The biggest change in ACS chemists’ healthcare in the last five years was that more employers were providing annual physical benefits, rising from 68% in 2009 to 77% in 2014. More employers also cover the entire cost of a physical, with the number of employers who will completely cover the cost of an annual physical increasing 9% (from 25% to 34%) during the same time period. Employers are investing in their employees’ long-term health, combining free physicals with healthy cafeteria options, gym memberships, bike share programs, and smoke-free workplaces. This yields both the employer and employee healthcare savings.
Not all Americans are getting health insurance from their employer. In 2014, 2.4% of ACS chemists said that they (or someone from their household) were covered by insurance purchased from the healthcare exchange. Almost three times as many ACS chemists indicated that they were covered by Medicare (6.6%).
Very few chemists in 2014 said that they had no health insurance at all (1.6%). Contrary to what you might expect, those chemists were not necessarily unemployed. Only a third of chemists with no health insurance were unemployed (31%). Surprisingly more than half were employed either full-time (41.7%) or part time (20.0%).
No matter what the source, it’s clear that healthcare is an absolute essential for the chemical marketplace. A healthy workforce is a necessary and vital component to the continued growth in employment, production, education, and quality-of-life.
Relevant links
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm
http://blog.intuit.com/employees/how-much-does-an-employee-really-cost/
