The growth in popularity of employee benefits packages has led to a concomitant growth in legislation regulating them. Familiarity with these regulations is an important business tool. Employee benefits laws influence how businesses are run, and intelligently crafted benefits packages often give a business a competitive edge in attracting good workers. Its provisions attempt to ensure that such plans are financially sound and equitable. It sets minimum standards governing eligibility for participation, benefits rights and accrual, vesting, employer and employee contributions, payment of benefits, plan termination, mergers and survivors' benefits.
Regulations are expansive and complex.
Failure to follow regulations can expose an employer to civil liability. The covered individual can elect to continue, for a limited period, the coverage that he or she had before the termination. The employer can require that the covered individual pay up to 102 percent of the cost of coverage. But the definition of what constitutes gross misconduct in this context is murky. Workers of employers who offer such plans choose whether to receive their entire pay in cash or to have a portion set aside for retirement and taxed only when they retire or withdraw the money.