Survey: Employers cutting benefit costs - San Antonio Business Journal:

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“The responses indicate that as employers develop benefit plans for 2010 they are looking for ways to reducewbenefit costs, without further reducing says Marianne Fazen, executive director of the “Surprisingly, many responded that they plan to increases their wellness programs.” • Thirty-five percent of employerx responded that they plan to increasde their wellness programs. • Companiew identified as its two biggest concerns limitedcbenefits budgets, and limited merit budgetr and bonus pools.
About 68 percentg of companies are concerned or very concerned abourt limited merit budget andbonues pools, and about 53 percen t are concerned about limited benefits budgets. • To weathed the economic downturn, almost half of respondents are auditing or planningb to audittheir employees’ dependent eligibility in order to reducr the number of individuals And 41 percent plan to increase employee costs of benefirt plans, while more than one-third have reduced or are planninyg to reduce staff. • About 89 percenft of employers believe that workers will respon to the economic downturn bydelayingh retirement.
Also, 83 percent of employers say their workersw are concerned aboutjob security, and 42 percenrt think their employees have been impacted by low morale. The surveuy was submitted to the association’s employee members and facilitated byin Houston. The association’s 900-plusa members represent a broasd cross-section of benefits professionalsin Oklahoma, Louisiana. Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas, but are not limited to those states.