How Does Pay Strategy Connect to Benefits?
Through total cost. A candidate weighs the whole package, so pricing salary without the benefits load compares a number to something else entirely.
How it works in practice
Through total cost. A candidate weighs the whole package, so pricing salary without the benefits load compares a number to something else entirely.
Pricing salary with the benefits load included gives you a true cost for each role, and a fair comparison with what other employers offer.
It also shows what a change in the employee premium share does to take-home pay. A small change in the share can offset a raise, and you want to see that before employees do.
Treat pay and benefits as one budget and the trade-offs become visible: where an extra dollar does more as salary, and where it does more as coverage.
Three places to go next
Total cost of an offer
Salary and benefits compared together.
Benefits increase vs. raise
Compare a cost increase with a pay change.
Compensation strategy
Pay and benefits designed as one budget.
Related questions.
What is the benefits load?
The employer cost of benefits on top of salary, such as the premium share, account funding and paid time.
Why look at take-home pay?
A change in the employee premium share can offset a raise.
Is there a tool for this?
Yes. The benefits increase vs. raise calculator compares the two.
Where this comes from.
This page describes how CFH builds and times total compensation statements and related materials for employer clients. It uses no outside statistics. The related guides below cover the wider process.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
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