Shared cost of health care benefits: Some cautionary though

• Published in: International journal of productivity and performance management Vol. 42; no. 3; p. 11
• Main Authors: Hughes, R Eugene, Tomkiewicz, Joseph M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.05.1993
• Subjects: Compensation; Cost; Employee benefits; Employees; Employers; Health care; Health care expenditures; Health insurance; Labor market; Polls & surveys; Sharing; Studies; Theory; Trends
• ISSN: 1741-0401

Management's efforts to shift health care benefits' cost to the employee is reflected in a start of, or increase in, employee contributions for employees' health insurance representing an improvement of 39% of 500 surveyed organizations in 1991, compared with 19% in 1990. Jaques' (1991) theory of equity allows for 2 considerations on the impact of shared cost of health care benefits on employees. First, a global comparison serves as the basis for determining pay equity. Rather than determining equity through an individual-to-individual comparison, Jaques posits that equitable pay is based on the labor market's determination of what is fair for the work being done. Second, employees' outcomes from work do not go beyond pay. Pay, for equity comparisons, is not, therefore, influenced by employees' individual and unique manipulation of the importance or value of physiological factors that may be associated with the work or the work environment. Consequently, it is reasonable to accept that, within a labor market, employees will exhibit a reasonably uniform agreement concerning the relation between work and pay that can be described as equitable.