They provide essential assistance to employees as well as assist organizational operations in many ways. The Minnesota Department of Economic Security began tracking employee benefits in the state in 1996. This year s report is the follow up to the initial effort. This 1998 Benefits Survey is based on the 1996 survey with a few modifications and additions.
Employers pay for over half of the benefit program costs such as health and life insurance.
The most common benefits programs are paid vacations and health insurance, with over 70 percent of firms offering them to full-time employees. Employee participation rates in benefit programs are quite high, but not all employees who are eligible to receive a benefit enroll in the program. Survey respondents ranked the rising cost of providing benefits as the most important issue in their firm. Second most important is flexibility in benefit plans. Minnesota firms average 10 percent of total payroll cost supporting benefit programs.