New Tool Allows Disability Benefits Plan Comparison
Tara Reynolds, corporate vice president at MassMutual stated, “You may be surprised at what you discover. Most employee benefit managers know their plans inside and out, but they may only have speculative information on what other companies offer. For companies seeking strong recruitment, retention and employee satisfaction, this tool can be very valuable.” She continued. “Most employees don’t really know much about their disability benefits until something happens in their life that triggers that moment of ‘uh oh, what do I have?’ Most companies provide access to that information, but until the moment it becomes relevant and real, it’s probably not on their radar screen.”
The tool then automatically benchmarks individual survey results against a group of 316 of the largest firms in the country who also participated in an earlier MassMutual study. This study, entitled “The Employer Perspectives on Disability Benefits Study” revealed some telling data about the state of long-term disability programs in general. Some highlights include data suggesting that only 60 percent of an employee’s base salary is actually covered by the average group plan. The study also found that only 27 percent of disability programs include coverage for bonus and commission income and most programs limit coverage for high-earning employees after basic coverage has been exhausted.
The survey tool is available online at MassMutual.com/BenefitComparison.