Courtesy Hamel Resources LLC
By Susan E. Campbell
When companies cut back on traditional employee benefits, such as the 15-year trend in vanishing pension plans, decisions may not be based exclusively on economics.
Many of the non-traditional types of benefits now appearing in the workplace are in response to changes in the age, lifestyles and preferences of today’s employees.
There are not enough Generation X-ers to take the place of baby boomers as they retire and leave the work force. Boomer children will. About 60 percent of the workforce in 2020 is expected to be made up of millennials, or Generation Y, those born in the two decades before 2000.
Now in their 20s to late 30s, millennials have different priorities from their parents or even the generation that preceded theirs, said Gail Hamel, owner of Hamel Resources LLC in Lake George.
“In general, younger people today aren’t thinking about retirement,” said Hamel. “They live in the moment because of the world in which they were raised.”
Another major traditional benefit, health coverage, continues to experience cutbacks in the employer-paid portion compared to the percentage covered for baby boomers.
“But no one knows where health care will be even months from now,” said Hamel. “Gen Y is more concerned with just getting a career started.”