The High Public Cost of Low Wages

Stagnating wages and decreased benefits are a problem not only for low-wage workers who increasingly cannot make ends meet, but also for the federal government as well as the 50 state governments that finance the public assistance programs many of these workers and their families turn to. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of enrollees in America’s major public support

Source: The Center for Labor Research and Education, UC Berkeley

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Global Uncertainty Fuels Workers' Desire for Retirement Security

Introduction:

The 2013/2014 Global Benefit Attitudes Study examines how employees' preferences for retirement security affects their financial priorities and retirement planning, what makes them join an organization and what makes them stay, and the kind of benefits they desire.

The research was conducted in 12 countries, and the survey was completed by 22,347 employees representing all job levels and major industry sectors. Read More

 Source: Towers Watson

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Scraping By: Income and Program Participation After the Loss of Extended Unemployment Benefits

Abstract:
Despite unprecedented extensions of available unemployment insurance (UI) benefits during the "Great Recession" of 2007-09 and its aftermath, large numbers of recipients exhausted their maximum available UI benefits prior to finding new jobs. Using SIPP panel data and an event-study regression framework, we examine the household income patterns of individuals whose jobless spells outlast their UI benefits, comparing the periods following the 2001 and 2007-09 recessions. Job loss reduces household income roughly by half on average, and for UI recipients benefits replace just under half of this loss. Accordingly, when benefits end the household loses UI income equal to roughly one-quarter of total pre-separation household income (and about one-third of pre-exhaustion household income). Only a small portion of this loss is offset by increased income from food stamps and other safety net programs. The share of families with income below the poverty line nearly doubles. These patterns were generally similar following the 2001 and 2007-09 recessions and do not vary dramatically by household age or income prior to job loss.

Source: Institute for the Study of Labor

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Survey Results: Offering Benefits Still Gives Employers a Competitive Advantage

From the press release:

The vast majority or workers say that the benefits package an employer offers―especially health insurance―is important to their decision to accept or reject a job, but a quarter are not satisfied with them, according to a new survey.
More than three-quarters of employees state that the benefits package an employer offers prospective employees is extremely (33 percent) or very (45 percent) important in their decision to accept or reject a job, according to the 2013 Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey (WBS), by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald and Associates.

Source: EBRI

Download pdf results: 2013 Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey