How much are benefits worth per hour?

[Angry Birds]

I think this question may have been asked before but I can't find it.
So, how much are benefits worth per hour? $20/hour? $30/hour?

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[deleted480308]

Depends on the benefits and how many hours you work

 

[pkwraith]

Benefits are highly variable, even insurance plans. The value of some benefits are pretty easy to calculate. My employer contribution to HSA, CME, and 401k are easily calculated. Those three add up to about 50k for me and I can just divide that by my hours. Other things like the worth of health, vision, dental vary based on how good the plans are and your region.

 

[Siggy]

If you're talking W2 vs 1099, also remember that the W2 is going to have >10k in employer side payroll tax paid for you.

 

[cyanide12345678]

The biggest benefit will always be the ficaa taxes that your employer will pay.

Do some math, it's very easy to calculate the exact benefit amount.

Also if you have a working spouse, the value of the benefits is greatly diminished if you can get on your spouse's insurances. I'm 1099, it costs about 2k extra a year for me to have health, vision and dental insurance through my spouse. When i was job hunting, companies made it sound like the benefits were worth 50k, I'm sure they would pay quite a bit for the insurances, but to me the worth just was 2k for the insurances, 15k for ficaa, 5k cme, and that's about it.

 

[Angry Birds]

God damn it. I was hoping this would be easier.
Thanks, guys!

 

[p1acebo]

God damn it. I was hoping this would be easier.
Thanks, guys!

Haha I was hoping the same thing when checking out this thread. Should’ve known better though!


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[docB]

Yeah, it's really hard to get to a real apples to apples comparison. You would have to get insurance quotes in the market where you want to work and even then groups can differ in what they cover vs. what you pay. In other words a group can tell you they have a great health plan with low deductibles and so on but their employee contribution may be a lot more.

I suggest trying to figure out what is most important to you and that can help you ask better questions. For example decide if you need comprehensive dental and vision or can just cover that stuff on your own. Try to pick a mid level plan out of what they offer and ask specifically what the employee contribution is for that. You can also ask what the average employee contribution is for the group.

The point is you only want to assign value for stuff you actually care about. If you don't have kids and don't plan on it for a while you would assign less value to a fat child care benefit.

One thing that you should do if you're looking at different markets is check the cost of living and taxes. This is a big deal in the west where several states have no state income tax and others have high taxes.

 

[Porfirio]

For my situation:

HSA ($6,500 individual and $13,000 family deductible then insurance pays 100%, family of 3) $825 per month

Dental (me and my wife) $71.14 per month

Disability ($7,200 per month benefit) $204 per month

Life Insurance ($3 million ten year and $2 million twenty year) $112 per month

401k me (employee and employer) $57,000

401k wife (she works for me, employee and employer) $25,500

IRAs $12,000

HSA plan savings benefit (stealth IRA) $7,100

Total per year: $116,145.68
Hours worked per year: 1,728

Cost per hour:

Total- $67.22

Minus Wife- $52.46

Minus Wife, Employee portion 401k/IRAs (what company pays your IRA and employee portion?)- $34.23

Minus Wife/Employee portion 401k/IRA/HSA stealth IRA- $30.12 or 12.55% of hourly rate

 

[CajunMedic]

Also if you have a working spouse, the value of the benefits is greatly diminished if you can get on your spouse's insurances. I'm 1099, it costs about 2k extra a year for me to have health, vision and dental insurance through my spouse

My wife is planning on still working when I reach attendinghood for this reason. Better and cheaper than the “you send us a check up front, plus a chunk monthly of your pay. We’ll deduct premiums and send you the rest back” HDHP’s that TeamHealth is offering me.


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[Porfirio]

For me, if my wife worked a job that had health insurance, I would likely put my wife on her plan and get my own HDHP off Obama care for myself and my child because of the HSA stealth IRA benefit. I am young and generally healthy. My child is covered 100% because she is young and healthy. Insurance is a waste for me unless very sick and dying.

 

[EctopicFetus]

beenfits depend. Looking over a large number of job offers from my residents this is the number that is always over inflated. What I tell people is the only thing that matters is what those are worth to you.

For example if your spouse works. Employer says your health insurance is worth $500/month. The total cost is $600 so you only pay $100. If you are the sole provider in your house and the open market rate is $700 then this benefit is worth $500 to you, (6k) per year.

Now if your spouse has a great job and they cover all insurance premiums for your family with no cost to you that is worth $0.

Things like retirement are real and go to you. Same for paid vacation. You have to calculate this for yourself to get the value. For things like long term dsabilty I find the value close to 0. The reason is i carry my own policy and always will. As such many of the plans wont let you double dip. So the value is $0. Long term dsability is expensive and often lets them bloat the value.