Full-time vs. Part-time Employee Benefits: How to Offer Both | hioscar Blog | Oscar
Full-time vs. Part-time Employee Benefits: How to Offer Both
If you have both full-time and part-time employees, learn how to compare benefits options for them.
Employee Health BenefitsTips for Small Businesses
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Benefits will likely differ for full and part-time workers — here’s what employers need to know.
By Valerie Bolden-Barrett (opens in new tab), Contributing Writer at Zenefits (opens in new tab), a Cigna + Oscar partner. Zenefits curates content for managing the modern workforce, empowering businesses to put employees first. We're bringing you some of their articles about the latest news, information, trends, and community.*
The United States economy was on the rebound during the 12 years following the 2008 recession. In September 2019, the unemployment rate dipped to a record 50-year low of 3.5%, signaling a further tightening of the labor market. The employee-driven economy drew businesses into fierce competition for talent. Benefits, perquisites (perks), and one-time bonuses were currency for attracting new hires and retaining current staff.
Big-box retailers, some with historically high turnover rates, responded to the tight labor market by extending benefits to part-time workers. Home improvement giant Lowe’s (opens in new tab) offered its part-time staff paid parental leave for the first time in 2018, while chose to give its part-time, hourly workers paid family leave, along with backup childcare and eldercare benefits.
Competing for talent is just one incentive for offering part-time workers benefits; the other is talent development. In an email interview for Zenefits, Chris Krusiewicz, vice president of California-based insurance firm Burnham Benefits, said that offering part-time workers benefits makes sense because today’s part-timers could become employers’ superstars. He added that with the current health crisis, it’s reasonable that employers feel compelled to provide healthcare coverage to as much of their workforce as possible.
Open Enrollment (opens in new tab) — the annual, time-limited rollout of largely health-related benefits — is already here. By now, companies have decided what benefits they’ll be offering and what coverage full- and part-time employees can receive.
Small and medium-sized businesses that haven’t extended benefits to part-time workers but plan to in the future should weigh the feasibility of covering their entire workforce. They should also know what their benefit options are. The process starts with knowing what benefits (opens in new tab) workers want most and are willing to buy or cost-share, and whether full- and part-time employees should receive the same options.
Read the rest of the article for more on offering benefits to part-time and full-time employees on Zenefits.com (opens in new tab).
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*Note: Oscar has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the reliability, quality, or accuracy, of this content.
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