Benefits Think

Congratulations to Robert (or Elizabeth) on starting a blog. Now if only the header was as cool as EBN's ...

Innovation breeds innovation around here, and just months after EBN launched the Daily Diversion, my colleagues at Employee Benefit Adviser have launched a blog of their own. Visit benefitsexplained.blogspot.com to check out their updates and video blog posts. I'll be linking to their content and vice...

U.S. House and Senate leaders reached a deal late last week on a $789 economy-recovery package, which includes $21.4 billion for health insurance assistance for laid-off workers. COBRA-eligible workers would receive a 60% subsidy toward their COBRA premiums for nine months.

Cupid -- with a little help from the economy -- appears to have hit his mark this Valentine's Day, as 78% of American workers love their job more than they did before entering the recession, reports a recent Workplace Insights survey from the recruitment and workplace solutions provider, Adecco USA.

No, not the daily chatfest on tv, EBN's new "View from the Andes" column from Karrie Andes, director of HR for Deffenbaugh Industries in Kansas City, and EBN's newest contributing editor. Andes will be running monthly in EBN this year. This month, she details her experience with mandating employee health...

I agree that executive compensation should be capped, but I believe all the corporations executives compensation should be capped. That will level the playing field and avoid concerns of talent hopping. There are other ways that these executives earn money via stock, capital gains etc. When is enough...

While some -- I admit, myself included -- hailed President Obama's recent edict that executives at companies receiving federal bailout money will have their compensation capped at $500,000, not everyone thinks the limits are a good idea.

We all know the #1 reason Reagan's handlers pushed 401(k) was the instant payoff especially to Executive Life and Drexel... ERISA allowed them to replace properly managed pension funds with essentially unsupervised "guaranteed insurance contracts"...guarantees that in the end were paid for by the taxpayer....

Small employers have big compliance mandates to contend with to meet the Government Accounting Standards Board Statement 45 rules (better known as GASB 45), which apply to measurement and disclosure of nonpension post-employment benefits. Times are tight enough economically; don't let noncompliance fines...

Employees aren't immune to the news reports of millions of Americans losing trillions of dollars in collective retirement income, and the news that increasing numbers of organizations are freezing their retirement plans, suspending matching contributions or both is heightening anxiety about their futures....