Kaiser Analyzes Increase In Employer Health Costs

Employers saw health benefit costs climb to an average of $2.59 per hour in 2005, almost $1 more than the average recorded just 6 years earlier.

Researchers at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, Calif., have published those figures in a study of payroll and health benefits costs.

The median cost of health coverage as a share of payroll rose to 11% in 2005, from 8.2% in 1999, the researchers report.

Employers spent more on health coverage for higher-paid workers, such as executives and technicians, but health benefits costs accounted for a higher percentage of payroll for the lower-paid workers, the researchers note.