In addition to health insurance, business owners who are contemplating group health plans for their staff may wonder if they should provide their staff with any other benefits. You may also be interested in the percentage of small businesses that provide benefits other than health insurance to their workers. What common forms of employee benefits do companies typically offer? So, in this piece, we’ll examine the benefits for a small business employee, examples, as well as some real-world case studies.
What Benefits Do Small Business Employees Receive?
Small business employee benefits are different extras that employees receive on top of their base pay. These could include retirement, dental, vision, and health plans. Small business employee perks can help you hire and keep talented, dependable workers.
Benefits for Employees that a Small Business Can Offer
Small businesses can offer two types of employee benefits: financial perks and extra benefits.
#1. Financial Benefits
Employees are always highly motivated by financial rewards. Employee stock options, pay increases, and other perks that somehow help employees’ money are a few examples of the financial benefits you can give your staff.
#2. Ancillary Benefits
Employees of small enterprises may also be eligible for “ancillary benefits,” a subset of the larger benefits category. Ancillary benefits, also called fringe benefits, may seem like they lower an employee’s pay, but their real goal is to lower their long-term healthcare costs. Examples of extra benefits are life insurance, dental insurance, coverage for prescription drugs, and vision insurance.
Which employee Benefits must Small Businesses provide?
Small firms are required to offer their employees a variety of benefits. These employment advantages include, among others:
#1. Health Protection
According to the ACA, small firms must provide health insurance to workers who put in at least 30 hours per week or are regarded as full-timers.
#2. Compensation for Workers
Another benefit small firms must give their employees is workers’ compensation. Although offering worker’s compensation insurance is not often required by the federal government, several states should be careful to check. If workers’ compensation is not required in your state, you might want to give your employees something else to help them instead of paying for it.
#3. Disability Protection
Some states require small businesses to have short-term disability insurance, even though it is not usually required. Offering disability insurance to your employees is a good idea, regardless of whether your state mandates it. A small business owner never knows when an employee will file a disability claim, so it’s best to offer this benefit to protect your company and its assets.
What Benefits Must a Small company give its Employee?
What advantages to include in a small business benefits package may be on your mind if you’re a business owner thinking about doing so? A small business should provide the following typical employee perks to its employees:
- Health coverage
- Flexible and remote working possibilities; Paid time off (PTO), including sick and vacation days
- Insurance for life
- Plans for short-term or long-term disability insurance
- Retirement accounts or perks
- Resources for financial planning
Best Employee Benefits Small Business
#1. Financial Instruments that Assist with Unforeseen Costs
Surprisingly, even workers who make between $100,000 and $150,000 annually experience financial stress. Nearly half of American workers cited a lack of a “rainy day” fund as the most significant source of stress, and dealing with financial difficulties was the most stressful aspect of their lives. Saving money for emergencies is becoming more and more difficult in our uncertain world, but it is also becoming more and more essential.
Use a payroll service that gives employees free access to money between paychecks to help them deal with unexpected costs and put their pay to good use. These services can shield employees from late and overdraft fees on their credit cards and increase their long-term financial stability.
#2. Pay for Overtime
State and federal laws require the quick payment of overtime compensation to employees. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) says that if an hourly worker works more than 40 hours a week, they must be paid double time.
Alaska, California, Nevada, and Colorado also have laws that say you have to pay overtime based on how many hours you work each day. If you don’t pay overtime when it’s due, your company may be subject to legal action and fines.
#3. Compensation for Workers
Workers’ compensation insurance helps employees who suffer work-related injuries. State labor agencies are in charge of putting these vital worker protections in place and ensuring they are followed. Follow the rules set forth by your state. When necessary, providing workers’ compensation coverage can make or break your company.
#4. Compulsory Leave
Numerous federal and state regulations mandate that employers give qualified workers unpaid leave, typically.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) at the federal level gives workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for situations like illness or childbirth. Only companies with 50 or more employees must comply with FMLA regulations.
The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) says that employers must give unpaid time off for military duty. Most states also demand that employers grant their staff members paid time off to serve on juries.
More than a dozen states now have laws requiring paid sick days, so you might need to include this in your benefits package. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) may require you to take sick leave.
#3. Medical Coverage
The Affordable Care Act says that if an employer has more than 50 workers, they must offer health insurance or pay a fine from the Internal Revenue Service. Health insurance plans are optional benefits for smaller employers.
Employee Benefits for Small Business Examples
Listed below are a few examples of employee benefits for any small business:
#1. Health Care Coverage
One of the most popular benefits offered to employees is health insurance. There isn’t a universal standard for health insurance, though.
This is because each insurance provider has different requirements for their policies. Also, “medical insurance” can refer to several different policies that all fall under the same umbrella.
- Medical insurance
- Vision coverage
- Dental coverage
- healthcare protection
Healthcare insurance plans cover general health concerns. Here are a few illustrations:
- Hospital facilities
- Annual check-ups; Dr. fees; Emergency ambulance costs; Setting and casting a broken leg; Prescriptions;
- Testing services
- Ear infections; maternity and pregnancy care; antibiotics for strep throat
For workers of all ages, prescription coverage can vary and is crucial. They will want to know if their preferred prescriptions and delivery options that suit their lifestyle are covered.
Vision and dental care are often considered separate insurances because they are often left out of health insurance plans. Most of the time, dental and vision insurance premiums are added to the cost of a standard policy.
#3. Life Insurance
Life insurance is a shared benefit to employees to attract new hires and help protect those already there.
As part of an employee benefits package, there are many different types of life insurance policies, such as:
- Term life insurance for groups, as opposed to an individual life insurance policy, this insurance contract protects several people in the event of death for any reason. Compared to individual life insurance policies, these are frequently much less expensive.
- Collective accidental death and mutilation. This is comparable to group term insurance. It only covers specific situations that result in death or dismemberment, though.
- Accident coverage for travelers on business. This offers protection in the event of a person’s passing, an accident, or paralysis while on company property or traveling for work.
- Face value life insurance. This kind of insurance contract specifies how a life insurance policy’s premium, cash value, and death benefits will be split between the employer and the employee.
Free Employee Benefits for Small Business
Here are some examples of free or cheap employee benefits you can offer at your workplace:
#1. Regular Yoga
You can turn a conference room or outdoor area you don’t use frequently into a temporary yoga studio for your staff if you have one. To do this, you might need to hire a local yoga teacher to lead 30-minute to 1-hour classes for your staff during lunch or after work. You might also need to buy some for staff members without yoga mats.
Send a survey to your staff to determine whether they would be interested in the idea before you start. You could also conduct a trial run to see whether your employees would participate in this benefit.
#2. Memberships at a Gym
Free gym memberships or discounts for a neighborhood gym are a low-cost way for smaller businesses with under 100 employees to promote employee health and well-being. To decide whether to offer this perk, get in touch with nearby gyms and ask about their price, group discounts, and corporate service.
#3. Discounts at Nearby Stores
Businesses can get regional discounts at restaurants, grocery stores, dry cleaners, and other stores through a number of discount apps and other services. You can show your employees how much you value them and help them save money on their leisure activities by giving them discounts or vouchers for nearby businesses.
#4. Mileage Compensation
Mileage reimbursement programs help workers who commute long distances or travel for work by lowering the cost of getting to and from work and to meetings or conferences. Giving staff gas cards as payment for the monthly amount they spend on gas will help you achieve this. You can offer gas cards with enough money on them to cover the cost of one tank of gas if you want a less expensive choice.
If you offer each employee one card each month, you can still save them $20 to $30 that they can use for something else, even if you can’t cover a month’s worth of gas-related expenses.
#5. Event Tickets
Giving employees a chance to go to a sporting event, concert, or culinary festival is a fantastic low-cost incentive to boost productivity and generate excitement at work. The number of tickets you buy will depend on how much money is available in your company’s budget.
Then decide how to select the winner or winners. The employees with the highest three monthly quotas might be chosen randomly from a pool of candidates, or you could ask interested employees to put their names in a hat.
Cost of Employee Benefits for a Small Business
According to statistics from the latter part of 2018, the average cost of employee benefits for companies is $11.60 per hour. According to the same survey, the average hourly work cost is $36.63, of which $25.03 goes toward pay and salaries. These numbers are interesting because an employer’s average cost of benefits causes payroll costs to go up by nearly 50%.
What Are Employee Benefits Examples?
Employee stock options, pay increases, and other perks that somehow help employees’ money are a few examples of the financial benefits you can give your staff.
What Is the Cost of Employee Benefits for a Small Business?
According to statistics from the latter part of 2018, the average cost of employee benefits for companies is $11.60 per hour.
Bottom Line
If you are a small business owner considering group health insurance, one question you may have is whether you should give employees benefits in addition to health insurance. You might also be curious about how many small businesses offer additional benefits to employees besides health insurance and what kinds of benefits are most typically offered by employers.
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