My entire 27-year career has been centered on helping merit shop construction companies design and administer employee benefit plans compliant with prevailing wage regulations and I am still astounded when I hear that a contactor chooses to pay required fringe benefit contributions as cash wages rather than benefits because “that is what employees want”.
When contractors choose to pay the fringe benefit requirement as additional cash wages they are increasing their cost for payroll tax, workers compensation premiums and possibly liability insurance premiums. These additional payroll related burdens have an enormous effect on bottom line profits.
The Austin, Texas based Fringe Benefit Group (also known as The Contractors Plan), a pension and welfare benefit plan administrator has been named in a class action suit for charging “sky-high” and “grossly excessive” direct and indirect fees for their administrative services.
We field many calls each week about Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) Plans. The following five are the most common.
Self-insured, or self-funded health plans, are popular with employers that have a large, diverse workforce.
My last blog entry featured the success story of one of our heavy highway construction company clients. This time I want to focus on the success of one of our client’s employees.