Utah Employee Benefits is a comprehensive employee and executive benefits firm. We provide organizations throughout the country with the tools and resources to Attract, Retain, and Retire great employees. Utah Employee Benefits knows that employees ultimately drive the success of the organization and will inevitably determine its future. At Utah Employee Benefits, we help our clients improve their organizations’ bottom line and return on assets by implementing unique and appropriate employee benefit plans.
Utah Employee Benefits has nearly 20 years combined experience in employee and executive benefit planning.
The Basics of Utah Employee Benefits
What's required? What's not? And what's just good policy? This primer will help you figure it out.
Once you have great employees on board, how do you keep them from jumping ship? One way is by offering a good benefits package.
Many small-business owners mistakenly believe they cannot afford to offer benefits. But while going without benefits may boost your bottom line in the short run, than penny-wise philosophy could strangle your business's chances for long-term prosperity. However, most employees have come to the realization that there are certain benefits that any good employers must offer.
Heading the list of must-have benefits is medical insurance, but many job applicants also demand a retirement plan, disability insurance and more. Tell these applicants no benefits are offered, and often top-flight candidates will head for the door.
The positive side to this coin: Offer the right benefit, and your business may just jump-start its growth. "Give employees the benefits they value, and they'll be more satisfied, miss fewer workdays, be less likely to quit, and have higher commitment to meeting the company's goals," says Bret Harding, CEO at Utah Employee Benefits. "The research shows that when employees feel their benefits needs are satisfied, they're more productive."
Benefit Basics
The law requires employers to provide employees with certain benefits. You must:
• Give employees time off to vote, serve on a jury and perform military service.
• Comply with all workers' compensation requirements.
• Withhold FICA taxes from employees' paychecks and pay your own portion of FICA taxes, providing employees with retirement and disability benefits.
• Pay state and federal unemployment taxes, thus providing benefits for unemployed workers.
• Contribute to state short-term disability programs in states where such programs exist.
• Comply with the Federal Family and Medical Leave (FMLA).
You are not required to provide:
• Retirement plans
• Health plans (except in Hawaii)
• Dental or vision plans
• Life insurance plans
• Paid vacations, holidays or sick leave
In reality, however, most companies offer some or all of these benefits to stay competitive.
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires employers to give workers up to 12 weeks off to attend to the birth or adoption of a baby, or the serious health condition of the employee or an immediate family member. After 12 weeks of unpaid leave, you must reinstate the employee in the same job or an equivalent one. The 12 weeks of leave does not have to be taken all at once; in some cases, employees can take it a day at a time.
In most states, only employers with 50 or more employees are subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act. However, some states have family leave laws that place family leave requirements on businesses with as few as five employees. To find out your state's requirements, contact you state labor department.
Utah Group Health Insurance
Health insurance is one of the most desirable benefits you can offer employees. There are several basic options for setting up a plan:
• A traditional indemnity plan, or fee for service. Employees choose their medical care provider; the insurance company either pays the provider directly or reimburses employees for covered amounts.
• Managed care. The two most common forms of managed care are the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and the Preferred Provider Organization (PPO). An HMO is essentially a prepaid health-care arrangement, where employees must use doctors employed by or under contract to the HMO and hospitals approved by the HMO. Under a PPO, the insurance company negotiates discounts with the physicians and the hospitals. Employees choose doctors from an approved list, then usually pay a set amount per office visit (typically $10 to $25); the insurance company pays the rest.
• Self insurance. When you absorb all or a significant portion of a risk, you are essentially self-insuring. An outside company usually handles the paperwork, you pay the claims and sometimes employees help pay premiums. The benefits include greater control of the plan design, customized reporting procedures and cash-flow advantages. The drawback is that you are liable for claims, but you can limit liability with "stop loss" insurance--if a claim exceeds a certain dollar amount, the insurance company pays it.
• Archer Medical Savings Account.: Under this program, an employee of a small employer (50 or fewer employees) or a self-employed person can set up an Archer MSA to help pay health-care expenses. The accounts are set up with a U.S. financial institution and allow you to save money exclusively for medical expenses. When used in conjunction with a high-deductible insurance policy, accounts are funded with employee's pretax dollars. Under the Archer MSA program, disbursements are tax-free if used for approved medical expenses. Unused funds in the account can accumulate indefinitely and earn tax-free interest. Health-savings accounts (HSAs), available as of January 2004, are similar to MSAs but are not restricted to small employers.