HEALTH INSURANCE Providing access to quality health care is another valuable component of employee compensation. Virtually all park and recreation agencies offer health insurance coverage to staff and their families. Most agencies (87 percent) provide benefits for both employees and their families, while 13 percent provide employee-only benefits. In addition, most agencies require employees to share health insurance costs, including having their staff contribute to insurance premiums. The percentage of the premiums that an agency pays and the percentage that an employee must cover may vary greatly between agencies. Typically, park and recreation agencies cover 85 percent of their employees’ health insurance premiums. Some agencies pick up an even greater part of the tab: 39 percent pay for at least 90 percent of their employees’ health insurance premiums, including 20 percent of agencies that cover the entire amount. At the other end of the spectrum, nearly 20 percent of agencies cover less than 70 percent of their employees’ health insurance premiums. Special park districts tend to pay a higher percentage of their employees’ health insurance premiums (a median of 90 percent) than do other agencies.
PERCENTAGE OF HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS PAID BY PARK AND RECREATION AGENCIES (Percentage Distribution of Agencies)
All
1-10 FT Employees
11-20 FT Employees
21-50 FT Employees
51-100 FT Employees
More Than 100 FT Employees
City/ Town/ Borough
County
Special Park District/ Regional Authority
100 percent
20%
21%
29%
11%
21%
11%
20%
17%
23%
13%
90-99 percent
19
16
17
32
10
26
16
21
29
38
80-89 percent
28
28
27
30
38
16
30
25
23
25
70-79 percent
14
13
13
11
14
21
13
21
10
*
50–69 percent
10
10
12
7
*
26
13
8
4
13
Less than 50 percent
9
12
*
11
14
*
8
8
10
*
Median agency contribution
85
80
85
85
81
80
80
83
90
85
Urban
* = less than 1%
In addition to health insurance and vacation, an overwhelming majority of agencies offers other valuable benefits as a part of their compensation packages for FT employees, including: • Dental (offered by 98 percent of agencies) • Continuing education (98 percent) • Life insurance (97 percent) • Vision (96 percent) • Employee assistance/Counseling (93 percent) In some cases, the agency pays the full cost of the benefit. In other cases, the agency and employee share the costs. Park and recreation agencies are more likely to bear the full cost for continuing education, life insurance and employee assistance.
8 | 2021 National Recreation and Park Association
