Employee-only premium vs. family premium

[Guest Ssteve]

XYZ Company has, for decades, had employees pay only toward family plans. (Employee-only premiums were paid in full by XYZ Co.)

In the interest of saving money, XYZ is now demanding that employee-only participants begin paying a portion of their premium.

Catch: There will be no change for those employees in the family plans.

Example:

Fred, who is married, pays for his wife/kids insurance, but gets his own coverage free. (As it has always been...)

I'm not married and have no children, so, unlike Fred, I have to pay for my coverage.

Is this discrimination against single employees?

[Guest Akuykend]

Ssteve,

It is not necessarily discriminatory depending upon how the employers contributions are characterized. The employer may set it up that it pays 80% of the single employee rate, and x% of the dependent rate, where x equals the cost of the 20% employee contribution.

[KIP KRAUS]

I agree with Akuykend. It is not uncommon for an employer to request a contribution from employees for single coverage. Even though the employer is not changing the cost for employees who already have family coverage doesn’t mean he is discriminating in favor of the married employee. If it was explained the way you say, at the very least it was a poor choice of words to explain it that way.

It should have been explained that single coverage is going to cost “X”, and family coverage is going to cost “X”, which will not result in an increase for persons already covered under a family plan.

[Guest Ssteve]

Akuykend: Ignore the email I sent you. (Although venting did feel mighty good.)

Kip and Akuykend: Thanks for your responses. I just found this site today, and am thoroughly impressed!

As for my above situation, I've come to the conclusion that since HR put nothing in writing specifically stating that the portion of payroll deductions allocated to family plan payments will remain the same, I obviously have no proof of discrimination.

Now I get to share this info with other irate employees......lucky me.....