The increasing cost of employer contributions for employee health insurance reduces the share of compensation subject to the Social Security payroll tax. Rising insurance contributions can also have a more subtle effect on the Social Security tax base because they influence the distribution of...

This paper exploits temporal and spatial variation in the implementation of nine-city- and four state-level U.S. sick pay mandates to assess their labor market consequences. We use the synthetic control group method and traditional difference-in-differences models along with the Quarterly Census...

This paper evaluates the labor market effects of sick pay mandates in the United States. Using the National Compensation Survey and difference-in-differences models, we estimate their impact on coverage rates, sick leave use, labor costs, and non-mandated fringe benefits. Sick pay mandates...

Employer-provided nonwage benefit expenditures now account for one-third of U.S. firms' labor costs. We show that a broad measure of real labor costs including such benefit expenditures has become countercyclical during 1982-2014, contrary to the conventional view that labor costs are...

This article reviews the current debate about sick pay mandates and medical leave in the United States. The United States is one of three industrialized countries that do not guarantee access to paid sick leave for all employees. We first provide a categorization of the different paid leave...

This paper examines the implications of changing the tax treatment of employment-based health coverage. It discusses the current tax treatment of health coverage and various proposals to change the tax treatment of health coverage. The implications of changing the tax treatment are also...

In recent years, there have been many employer-driven “innovations” in health benefit design, such as health reimbursement arrangements, value-based benefit design, medical homes, wellness programs, and others. All of these innovations have a common goal: to better manage spending on health...

This paper examines changes in health coverage among workers during the recession that started in December 2007. Data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation are used to examine health coverage prior to the recession, and as recently as July 2009. Monthly changes are examined for...

This paper reviews the recent economic research on the relationship between health insurance and labor markets in the U.S., with an emphasis on research that has emerged since existing major reviews and the aim of identifying the types of data that are needed for this research to progress. We...

This paper examines public opinion surrounding employment-based health coverage. Data come from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc. 2012 Health Confidence Survey (HCS), which examines a broad spectrum of health care issues, including Americans’...