What's being offered? Annual survey of Indiana employee benefits.

AuthorMcKimmie, Kathy
PositionEMPLOYEE BENEFITS

A CAD DESIGNER'S average compensation is $43,500 in Indiana, a speech therapist's is $59,500, and a CFO pulls in $164,000. Those are just three of the 508 jobs rated in the "Compensation Data 2006" survey of Indiana employers, conducted by Kansas-based Compdata Surveys. Each job is further sliced and diced by size, type of firm and geographic location, taking up more than 650 pages of the 734-page book.

Companies participating in the annual survey--or those just buying the results--are eager to stay competitive. They're keen to know what others are budgeting for total pay increases this year and next so they don't fall behind their industry. It may be comforting that total pay increases have held steady for a few years now--3.33 percent in 2005, 3.4 this year and a projected 3.38 for next year--but increasing attention is being paid to the 26 pages of the Compdata report that detail benefit practices. Most employers zero in on the dozen pages on health care.

"There's good news and bad news," says Amy Kaminski, a Compdata manager. "The good news is health-insurance premiums in Indiana are increasing at a lower rate for the fifth straight year. The bad news is health-insurance premiums are still increasing. In Indiana, the average health-insurance premium increased by 12.8 percent this past year. This is down from 13.8 percent last year and 16.3 percent in 2004."

The continuing double-digit increases for employers mean continuing cost-shifts to employees. This year, 41 percent of Indiana companies increased the employee's portion of the health premium, 34 percent increased deductible levels and 6 percent reduced benefits offered.

Survey results show that 13.6 percent of companies offered a health savings account, HSA, with a high-deductible health plan in 2006. Just over 12 percent offered some type of health reimbursement account, HRA, half with a high-deductible plan. Of the employees offered an HSA plan, 18 percent are enrolled in 2006, a 27 percent increase over 2005. The most common deductible level for an individual was $2,000 to $2,999. Although employers don't have to contribute to the HSA, the survey showed 64 percent made some contribution for individual coverage in 2006, up from 59 percent in 2005.

Indiana is slower than some other states to embrace HSAs, says John Boss, senior vice president Aon Consulting, Indianapolis, although nationwide reports show good results, including single-digit increases, versus 12 to 13 percent in a...

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