American Benefits Podcast

Diversity, equity and inclusion is a priority for many of the American Benefits Council’s member companies, who have in turn directed us to engage with these issues as they relate to employee benefits. 

Over the previous 12 months, the Council has established a task force to address social determinants of health and joined with a number of other esteemed organizations to release the research report, Collection of Race and Ethnicit...

If the American Benefits Council is to be a leader in the employee benefits world, we must have strong internal leadership. The Council’s policy agenda is carefully considered and set by our Policy Board of Directors, made up of knowledgeable and dedicated human resource and benefits professionals at each of our most engaged member companies.

Holding the gavel at the head of that table is this episode's special guest. Speaking to h...

For many multinational companies, figuring out how to scale employee benefits for a global population is a critical element of their economic competitiveness. But if providing comprehensive employee benefit programs in the United States is like playing advanced chess, doing so on a global basis is like playing advanced chess on a moving speedboat.

The American Benefits Council's policy team is not only engaged with the whole wide w...

On this episode of the American Benefits Podcast, host Jason Hammersla...

Paid leave may not be an “employee benefit,” strictly speaking, in the same way that health coverage and retirement coverage are. But providing it has become a significant pressure point for employers, especially as an increasing number of states and localities have erected their own mandates over the last decade.

In this episode, host Jason Hammersla talks about this slow-motion explosion of paid leave mandates with one of the nat...

Since that enactment, however, the story has taken dizzying twists and turns, with more to come as the regulatory implementation phase gives way to nationwide litiga...

Even casual observers know that, over the past several decades, the nation's retirement system has evolved from a predominantly defined benefit system to a predominantly defined contribution system. That said, there are still nearly 47,000 defined benefit plans in the United States, (half of which are insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, or PBGC), covering almost 33 million people and totaling more than $3.2 trillio...

In this episode, host Jason Hammersla speaks to John C. Scott, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts Retirement Savings Pr...

According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6 in 10 adults in the U.S. have at least one chronic disease, while 4 in 10 have two or more. The CDC also estimates that 90% of the nation’s health care expenditures are for people with chronic and mental health conditions. And it’s very likely that the pandemic has exacerbated chronic disease by disrupting access to chronic disease treatment and cont...

Over the past year, the American workforce has undergone a forced evolution, with work environments and habits thrown into chaos. But even before the pandemic, human resources strategy had shown signs of strain under a rigid definition of "productivity." 

In this episode, host Jason Hammersla speaks to internationally respected HR consultant Richard Polak, who thinks there is a better way. Polak explains the philosophy behind his n...

With the nation in the throes of a lame-duck congressional session and slow-motion presidential transition, the judiciary is the only branch of the federal government that is working smoothly at the moment, even in the wake of seismic change in the U.S. Supreme Court’s personnel. And, as it happens, employee benefits...

The American Benefits Council is known for its staff continuity, with seven of our 15 staff members having been here for at least two decades. Occasionally, however, the employee benefit gods require new blood and new energy. The most recent addition to the Council family is Katy Johnson, who succeeds the newly retired Kathryn Wilber as Senior Counsel, Health Policy, directing the analysis and advocacy of health policy regulation a...

While we often focus on the Fortune 500 companies that dominate the world economy, another group of employers plays a fundamental role in the daily lives of millions of Americans: the churches, religious institutions and affiliated organizations that employ hundreds of thousands of clergy, lay workers, and their family members. This is a population with very typical health and retirement needs but also very unique practices and per...

The American economy crosses borders, oceans, time zones, cultures, languages and great walls. And therefore, compensation and benefits has gone global, too. For many multinational companies, figuring out how to scale employee benefits for a global population is a critical element of their economic competitiveness. Here at the Council, we’re engaged on global benefits in numerous ways, from functioning as the U.S. chapter of the In...

Retirement benefits are obviously one pillar of employee health and financial security, but despite all that employers do the “retirement savings gap” between what people have and should have, continues to grow. One of the biggest barriers to savings is student loan debt, which now exceeds 1.5 trillion in the U.S., while tuition rises 8% year over year. In an effort to help their employees, more companies are now seeing value in he...

We talk all the time about employee benefits for the evolving global workforce, but the truth is that benefits are important for more than just workers. For example, many covered lives are those of the spouses and children of workers with job-based health insurance. The voice of these families in Washington DC belongs to Frederick Isasi and his colleagues at Families USA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose stated mission i...