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Legal Requirements for Employee Benefits

Benefit requirements add to the cost of compensating employees. Organizations looking for ways to control staffing costs may look for ways to structure the workforce so as to minimize the expense of benefits. They may require overtime rather than adding new employees, hire part-time rather than full-time workers, and use independent contractors rather than hire employees. A number of laws are intended to provide equal employment opportunity without regard to race, sex, age, disability, and several other protected categories. Some of these laws apply to the organization’s benefits policies. Legal treatment of men and women includes equal access to benefits, so the organization may not use the employee’s gender as the basis for providing more limited benefits. Age discrimination is also relevant to benefits policies. Employers must take care not to discriminate against workers over age 40 in providing pay or benefits. Also, early-retirement incentive programs need to meet certain standards. The programs may not coerce employees to retire, they must provide accurate information about the options and enough time to make a decision. The Americans with Disabilities Act imposes requirements related to health insurance. Under the ADA, employees with disabilities must have “equal access to whatever health insurance coverage the employer provides other employees.” Even so, the terms and conditions of health insurance may be based on risk factors—as long as the employer does not use this basis as a way to escape offering health insurance to someone with a disability. Along with rising benefits costs, reporting requirements have encouraged many companies to scale back benefits to retirees.