Benefit Cost per Employee

[Guest addrm]

I need to project total benefit cost per employee. I know we need to include all the standard benefits, health, life, ltd, etc. but wasn't sure what the norm is as far as FICA, Unemployment and Workers comp being included. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks, Adele

[Larry M]

The "norm" will depend upon the purpose of the illustration.

Where the employer is trying to show the employee how much is being paid on the employee's behalf, the employee illustrations of benefits and "costs" we prepare for our clients usually include mandatory benefits (wages, workers comp, unemployment insurance, fica, etc) and voluntary benefits (sick leave, paid holidays, retirement plans, health and welfare plans, disability plans, etc.)

For those items which are easily identifiable, we use the exact amount (wages, fica, defined contribution plan..); for those which are not so easily identifiable (group life, defined benefit) we will use either an average per employee, an average based upon compensation or some other reasonable basis of allocation.