Employers are becoming more sensitized to the needs of part-time and nontraditional workers, but it has been a slow process. According to the Hewitt and RewardsPlus studies, a majority of employers provide some benefits to their part-time workers. Both studies found that more than 80 percent of surveyed employers provide vacation, holiday and sick leave benefits and that more than 70 percent offered some form of health care benefits. Employers are beginning to provide them even more flexibility in their work arrangements and hours, which I believe is a very important trend. Most part-time workers have had to work set hours with not that much flexibility in their scheduling.
Most employers prorate benefits to their part-time workers.
The most common way to calculate the accrual rate for benefits is to divide the employees average work hours by the hours in a full-time week. If an employer provides health care benefits to part-time employees, it may also use this simple formula to calculate how much it will contribute toward employee health insurance premiums. Typically, employers want part-time workers to pay higher premiums because their health care costs will be comparatively higher. The prorated approach, while common, can make administration of health plans more burdensome, especially at smaller companies. An easier method is to use a tiered approach, according to Kushner.