Survey: state workers like their healthcare, want higher pay

The State Employee Benefits Committee Monday was told that employees are pleased with benefits but want higher pay.

That was the message from a survey of employees that included 7,902 answers, a 24% response rate, which Sean Connelly, a senior director of Employee Experiences at Willis Towers Watson.

He said the percentage of responses gave the agency a high confidence rate in what was said, even if the response rate was lower than what they would have liked.

The survey asked respondents what they thought of possible changes that could be made to the state health plan, including what they thought of contributions being increased, out-of-pocket costs being increased, changes in eligibility and tuition assistance. 

Shaun O’Brien, a policy director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, asked why they asked the questions they did.

Connelly said that they could only ask so many questions. Their team, which included representatives from the state treasurer, from the Office of Management and Budget and from the Department of Finance, determined that some things were more important to ask than others.

Connelly said employees would prefer to have a higher base pay and many people were working with the state because of the benefits.

Compared to other companies, 61% of respondents said that the state’s health insurance was above average, while 73% of respondents said that the state was below average for base pay. Only 7% rated the pay above average.

Connelly said it was surprising to see so many people believe the base pay is below average.

“It’s a very, very clear, overwhelming response, right? Especially for the pay side…and just to be frank, we just don’t see those numbers,” Connelly said. “It’s rare to see even more than half rate something like that below. So that’s very compelling. Again, you know, 6% rating is above average.”

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Overall, on a scale of one to 100, one being the worst and 100 being the best, the survey showed people gave the plan a perceived value of 68.1, compared to the national average of 74.2, with those under 35 in Delaware giving it a perceived value of 62.

Perceived value is how much employees like a particular part of their benefits or compensation.

Older people and those who have been on the plan longer gave the plan a higher perceived value.

The survey measured how changes to the state’s healthcare plan would impact people’s view of the plan. 

 A 3% match for deferred compensation increased the perceived value the most at 16.7 points, while increasing healthcare premiums by 20% gave the biggest decrease in score at 28.6 points.

In measuring changes to the plan, the agency explored how much the changes would cost or save the state, with costs measured from negative five as giving the most savings, and a five costing the state the most.

While increasing base pay based on merit by 50% would have the highest cost, it only increased the perceived value by 9.7, compared to the 3% match, which had a cost of two.

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On the saving side, changing the required retirement age to 60 before someone could start receiving benefits saved the state the most and decreased the perceived value of the plan by the least at 4.4.

Under the existing plan, employees can get access to a reduced pension starting at the age of 55 if they also have 15 years of service, or at any age if they have 25 years of service, or access to a full pension at any age if they have at 30 years of service.

Nearly half of the survey takers said they would prefer to pay more from their paycheck and pay less when going to the doctor. But 26% said the opposite, with 24% saying they had no preference. Little difference in responses seemed to be age-related.

While 76% of respondents said they had a good understanding of the benefits they have, Connelly said that in the past when he has asked people to explain the plan, few people can.

“I’ve done lots of focus groups, where we say, hey, how well do you understand the programs? And everybody nods their heads, ‘Oh, yeah, pretty well,’” Connelly said. “And then I say, Okay, who wants to get up and explain how something works? And it gets very quiet…It is a self assessment.”

At the end of the survey, where people are asked to write any comments they had, and 54% of comments were about pay, something Connelly said isn’t surprising considering the impacts of inflation and how much people could make elsewhere.

“There’s just so much pressure on inflation and so much in the news about how so many people could make more, going to other places…while it’s a lot, over half of the people are making comments around pay,” Connelly said. “I think in the environment that we’ve been in, and especially, towards the end of last year, and beginning of this year, it is not a huge shock to see so much.”