According to Benefits Canada, the average cost of employee benefits for one full-time employee is $8,330 per year. However, that doesn’t mean you’ll pay that amount, though.

What we have discovered is that the real question being asked is, not the costs of group benefits but rather,

Will we be able to afford a Group Benefits plan?

Health insurance plans vary greatly from one company to the next, and the costs of group benefits vary, too.

How we approach the question of price?

Affordability over Costs

We talk about affordability rather than price.

As most employers do a 50/50 cost-sharing with their staff, we need to be conscious of how much is being deducted from an employee paycheque every 2 weeks. Businesses don’t need to pay for 100 percent of the premiums. Some companies do, which is very generous, but it’s definitely not required. If your employees contribute to the premiums, your costs will be lower.

Sharing costs with employees is acceptable because it helps them get the health insurance they might not otherwise be able to get. Paying a portion of the costs of a benefits plan is better than not having any benefits.  Offering a group health insurance plan will make it more affordable than the individual plans employees could purchase on their own.

For a plan with Life, Extended Health, and Dental, we have found that if the employer/employee split each is approx. 2.5 – 3 % of payroll (on each side). As a result, everyone feels they are getting a good value. The reason we use this percentage of payroll benchmark is that depending on your income, you will have a different definition of affordability.

People making $12 – $15 per hour, can afford and expect a very different type of benefits plan than people making journeyman rates or software tech making $100,000+ per year.

Flexibility with plans

If the owner wants a higher level of coverage then the rest of the staff, we can go as few as 1 person in the ownership class.

For example, if the owner wants enhanced coverage, and a more modest plan would be affordable for the rest of the staff, we can do that.

Contact us today for more information on a plan that fits your companies needs.

Click here to read our article on “what are the benefits of group insurance?”