I am new to the HR field, having been a labor/employment attorney for a couple years before I joined my current company. As most HR people know, the job market is extremely tight right now. In order to attract more blue collar workers who are lured by dollars rather than benefits, I want to propose to our company that we consider a policy whereby new workers can elect a higher starting hourly rate in exchange for waiving certain benefits such as medical and dental insurance. At the right hourly increase, this is a win-win situation. The company attracts more workers and there is a cost savings in insurance premiums. The employee gets more in his or her paycheck. I am looking for other companies who have considered and/or implemented this kind of policy, in order to have my facts before I make the proposal. It might be a stupid idea -- like I said I'm new to this. Any info anyone has would be most appreciated. Please email me at croach@adesa.com. Tx.

If you include ERISA qualified plans in that waiver, you will probably set yourself up for trouble, especially if you are dealing with full time EEs.

The examples of your proposal that I have seen usually involve P-T employees. Example, a bank hires data entry workers who work 2-3 hours per day. In exchange for more cash (such as an extra 25 cents per hour), the EE waives all benefits. This is not a problem for the qualified plans because the EE never gets close to 1000 hours in a year.

Are you going to make an employee who wants to waive coverage show that he has alternate coverage,
or will you let him go bare?

If your company has its own experiance rating, you may find that employees who waive benefits submit
minimal claims anyway, and the savings to the company turns out to be less than expected.

[Note: This message has been edited by Sheila K]