Benefits for Part Time Employees & 1099 Independent Contractors

Local businesses are an essential part of our MetroWest community.  In an effort to further support these businesses, our MetroWest Living team routinely interfaces with MetroWest residents and business owners to build visibility and to facilitate connections.  

In this month’s Supporting Local Business segment, I’d like to offer some insight into providing meaningful benefits for part-time employees.  Part-time employees and 1099 independent contractors are an important element in keeping our local businesses operating efficiently.  But, due to the ever-rising, astronomical cost of benefits and the difficulty small business owners experience in paying for their own benefits, employees, especially part-time employees, are left to fend for themselves.  

Let’s take a step back to look at why, beyond our obvious interest in our employee’s wellbeing, we would consider offering benefits at all.  In a word, we consider offering benefits for “retention” of these employees.  The costs and time associated with recruiting and training employees sometimes exceeds the cost of offering our employees benefits.  But, as I said earlier, the exponential increase in the cost of benefits certainly has changed this equation.  

Employee retention remains a core goal for most small businesses however and recent changes in the space may make offering benefits viable once again.  With the emergence of virtual primary care, subscription TeleHealth services and discounted prescription drug programs the benefits landscape has evolved.  It’s important to note that neither virtual primary care nor subscription TeleHealth services are replacements for traditional health insurance but, the fact that they offer access to healthcare is undeniable.  And, based on our research, with costs for these services hovering just under $20 per month for the entire family, they are within reach for most small businesses.  In fact, part-time employees and 1099 independent contractors can secure these virtual primary care, subscription TeleHealth services and discounted prescription drug programs on their own as well.

If you would like to learn more about my research around accessing these virtual primary care, subscription TeleHealth services and discounted prescription drug programs, I’d be delighted to share my notes.  Simply send me an email:  krbehn@MetroWest-Living.com.

Remember, supporting local businesses within our MetroWest community is absolutely critical not only to their success  as business owners but to the success of our MetroWest Community as a whole.