Or roughly…as part of my attempt to get a raise, I’m trying to figure out how much I actually make in total: salary + benefits + 401k matching.
I called my provider (Cigna) and they said shrug. Nobody at my workplace will be around until Monday, and I’m not sure who to call anyway. HR?
I figured since I know how much I put in, Cigna could tell me how much my plan (MED/80) costs, and I could just subtract. But I guess it’s not that simple.
Check your employment contract. I don’t know if every company does this, but many of them do list the specific amount for health care on the contract or the annual adjustments.
You might also look at your paystub.
The problem for Cigna is that they can’t just tell you what Med/80 costs. The cost is different for every employer and depends on number of employees, their age, their marital status, number of kids, etc. They may be prevented from telling you that number, since it might be considered confidential between the employer and Cigna.
Ultimately, HR is the best place to go if you can’t find the details on any documents that you have.
No, they usually can’t tell you that. It is semi-secret in most companies and varies by company even for the same plan. I used to work in IT benefits outsourcing and I could take a rough guess but your best bet is just to assume that what is taken out of your paycheck is about 1/3 of the total cost. That works as a rough estimate for many companies but some are more generous with their employees and some less. As a matter of fact, the cost of each of your benefits is generally semi-secret information. Your company might tell you but that isn’t the general rule. The benefits people in HR would be the people that know that information.
Thanks…I’ll probably just go with the 1/3rd rule of thumb. If they pay more than 2/3rds, I’m sure my boss will correct me. 
While this would be interesting information to have, I would also suggest you look into what private insurance would cost you, were you to no longer have employer sponsored health insurance. Consider that, as well as the actual dollar amount you and your employer are paying now.
For example, say your premiums now are $300 a month, you pay $100 and they pay $200. So your benefit from them is $200. But private insurance might cost you $400 a month, all of it out of your pocket. So are they saving you $100 (difference in premiums) or $200 (their portion of the insurance) or $400 (what you’d pay for insurance totally on your own)? Depends on how you look at it, I guess.
You might be able to find out if you know anyone who was laid off but is getting insurance through COBRA. They’re able to continue under the corporate plan as long as they pay both the employee and the employer shares of the premium, as well as a small administrative fee.
If I were trying to get a raise, I’d figure out what I would be worth at comparable jobs and companies in my industry, for my local area, and start from there. You seem to be going about it backwards (ie, a ground up, or as we’d say in gov contracting, a cost-buildup approach, instead of a top-down).
It’s like selling a house: nobody goes and figures out how much the wood, concrete, labor, etc costs that went into it; you figure out the comps and work from there.
Yeah, I’m definitely doing that. The problem is, most people with comparable jobs are freelancers (which is becoming exceedingly common in my industry), so for my own edification I’m calculating how much I’d need to make to be on par with others at my skill level who are mostly working without benefits.
Obviously I’m concentrating on merit, and I won’t bring up my number crunching unless they really low-ball me and I feel the need to illustrate that I’m a bargain.
The best way to do this is ask what you’d have to pay for COBRA coverage.
COBRA is basically YOU paying the insurance instead of your company. The company can add on a 2% administration fee. This only works for single coverage.
So if your employer said, if you lost your job your COBRA would $300.00/month, that is what your company is paying AT MOST.
It could be a bit less, when I worked in H/R and did payroll and had to budget out the costs, it could actually be a bit less, but not much.
As a GENERAL rule, and this is ONLY very GENERAL guidline, companies that are large, say over 100 employees can get rates about a third what a private individual could get, if he was in average shape with no major health problems like heart attacks or diabetes and such.
So if you could get a major/medical policy with prescriptions and doctor visits etc for say $1,000 a month, divide it by a third. Again this is just a very rough ballpark figure.
This is very general. A LOT depends on bargaining power. When I worked for Starwood Hotels this was a huge hotel chain and we got MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper rates for insurance than when I worked for another hotel company with only 25 hotels. Starwood got deal from just about everyone and they were excellent rates.
In addition dental and vision plans usually different and excluded. You have to add or subtract them in and out.