Benefits Now a Business Issue

“Benefits squeeze eats away at paychecks: This is not ‘just a benefits issue, it’s a business issue‘”: Mark Schwanhausser reports for the Mercury News. The article reports companies are attempting to pare down benefits costs–by reducing company matches in their 401(k) plans and by forcing workers to pay more of a share of their health care costs. The article discusses how health care costs can be “the difference between reporting a profit or loss.” Edward Lehman, a senior benefits consultant with Watson Wyatt, is quoted as saying that “[u]ntil 2003, it didn’t really hit the CFO’s or CEO’s radar screen” and how now “[i]nstead of being just a benefits issue, it’s a business issue.” The article predicts more paring back as companies asses the impact of the costs of their underfunded defined benefit pension plans.