Insurance for my Staff?

Question

I own a restaurant & bar. I have over 70 employees because we are open 7 days a week from 11a.m. to 3 a,m., plus cleaners. There are only 10 of us that are considered to be full time. How do I get us a group insurance and do they pay for it , or do I have to pay. What is the norm?

Answer 1

You contact the agent who writes the rest of your insurance, for quotes. You CAN include part timers if you want to, depending on how many hours they work.

Regarding payment, it's up to you. You can pay all of it, or you can pay $100 per employee, or you can pay all for executive officers and $100 per employee (or $50, or none) who's not an executive. There's no norm on paying, you can pretty much set it up however you want.

Answer 2

You can get a quote for group coverage, the agent helping with the quoting process will put together a census of your employees (to get an idea of health and type of coverage wanted (family, single, no coverage wanted)) and then can offer you a quote. Your quote will be based on some participation level (%) of your employees, usually 70-80%. You can elect to cover only full time or full and part time. You can elect who pays for it; you an pay for everything or nothing or somewhere in between.

Now, knowing that, be prepared for the sticker shock. Family coverage for a comprehensive policy will run $700 - $1000 per month per employee; singles $250-$350 month. These numbers may go up or down a little based on your employees age or health, but they will be substantial.

I you elect to pay the premiums figure $12000/ year for 10 full time employees = $120,000 year, carry half the cost, cut that in half. These number go up if you include part time.

If you elect to not pay the premiums, you employees may determine the cost is too high and opt out of coverage. At this point the insurer may determine participation % is too low and not offer the coverage at all.

Good luck in your decision process.

Answer 3

Call an insurance broker. In fact, call 5 and ask for quotes. Let's say it costs $320 per person per month. Can you afford to buy it for them all? If people have families, are you going to pay for them. Personnally, my little company only pays the individual rate, and the employee pays for the rest of the family, if needed. If you make people pay for even 10 percent of the cost, they appreciate it and value it a little more. And then you don't get people having coverage thru you and thru their spouse's employer.

Answer 4

Each carrier will have its own contribution rules when it comes to group insurance. These rules will vary between 50% of the employees cost to a defined contribution of $80, $100 etc... Most all carrier require some contribition as that shows exclusive employee/employer relationship.

I would suggest reaching out to a broker with the assets of multiple carriers and have them quote you. You may want to shop around with multiple brokers to see whom presents the best service.

Rule of thumb, don't sticker shop insurance policies as the price normally reflects the return. I suggest getting a list of your expectations of insurance policy on a notepad and presenting it to your agent. Let them shop your requirements and present you the best financial vehicle for you and your employees.