Can we offer paid insurance benefits to only exempt salaried employees?
By Penny Morey •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It is my understanding that if we offer paid insurance to exempt employees, we need to also provide this to the non exempt employees, is that correct?Most insurance carriers do not want to only offer health insurance, for example, to the higher-level employees for some good business reasons.
For one thing, it spreads the risk across fewer people. So, your rates may be very high, if you can find a carrier interested in your business. You are not legally prohibited from doing this if you can find a carrier interested in your business.
In my opinion, it would be better to offer health insurance, for example, to all employees and pay a set amount toward the cost (say 50 percent of the cost of single coverage). Then, pay exempt employees the amount you wish to in order to offset the remaining cost for their coverage.
You can offer benefits such as life insurance, disability insurance, etc. to only a portion of your workforce.But, again, the rates will be affected by the limited number of individuals being insured.
