A guide to understanding employee benefits : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Abstract

In response to the growing competitiveness in today's workforce, employee benefits have become a greater part of employee compensation and recruiting practices. Employee benefits include all benefits and services, other than wages for time worked, that employees receive from their employers. Employee benefits include health insurance, retirement plans, disability income insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, and other forms of payments and services such as bonuses and personal time off. Because of the growing importance of employee benefits, it is important for employees to understand what benefits they are offered, how the benefits work, and where their money is going. In response to this need, I give brief descriptions of the most accepted benefits. Following the descriptions, I discuss and analyze an employee benefit plan offered by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. The analysis gives a real life example of plans seen by thousands of employees and offers further understanding of employee benefit plans.