New Report on Benefits Provided by Oregon Employers

This morning, the Oregon Employment Department released a new report entitled Oregon Employer-Provided Benefits and the Impacts of Rising Costs.The 2012 Oregon Benefits Survey asked private employers from all industries, class sizes, and regions of the state about the benefits offered to their management employees, and full-time and part-time non-management employees, in June 2012. 

Employers’ responses provided several key findings about overall benefit offerings:

• Three-quarters (75%) of employers offered one or more health, retirement, leave, pay, fringe, or other insurance benefit to employees.

• More than one-half (57%) of Oregon employers offered health benefits, while slightly less than one-half (43%) of firms offered retirement benefits to employees.

For both health and retirement benefits, the information, wholesale trade, and health care and social assistance sectors reported the highest share of firms that offered benefits to management and full-time employees. For part-time employees, industries with the largest share of employers who offered health and retirement benefits differed: health care; professional, scientific, and technical services; and financial activities topped the list.

Employers reported the changes in their health and retirement benefit costs and offerings over time. They also detailed the impacts of changing health and retirement benefit costs on their businesses. Some effects were notable:

• About one-half (54%) of firms that offered health benefits indicated that rising costs reduced their business profits between June 2011 and June 2012.

• One out of four employers that offered health benefits indicated that they either increased employee health deductibles or co-pays (27%), or reduced other employee benefits (24%) to offset rising health costs.

Across the board, a larger share of firms offered benefits to management and full-time employees than to part-time employees. In addition, the largest employers (those with 50+ employees) offered benefits more frequently than mid-sized (10 to 49 employees) or small (2 to 9 employees) firms. Regional differences also existed: Portland-area and I-5 Corridor employers offered benefits at the highest rates. In most cases, Central Oregon reported the third-largest share of employers who offered benefits, followed by the Columbia Gorge, the Oregon Coast, and Eastern Oregon.

The full report can be found at QualityInfo.org. Questions? Send them my way (Gail.K.Krumenauer@state.or.us)!