Using employee benefits to create an equitable workplace is perhaps the single biggest trend in the labor market today — but is it really working if those benefits don’t serve employees equally?
Just 46% percent of Black employees, 41% of Latinx employees and 36% of American Indian/Alaska Native employees are covered by employer-sponsored health insurance, according to a 2018 analysis of the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. This compares to 66% of their white counterparts. The disparity is largely due to the disproportionate presence of BIPOC employees in industries where providing healthcare isn’t a priority, such as the service industry and contractual work.
