Wheaton College Recommendations of the Benefits Review Committee

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Wheaton CollegeRecommendations of
theBenefits Review Committee
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Benefits Review History

• Last full review was in 1990
• Every two years, we compared Wheatons benefits
  with those of a group of schools known as the
  Bowdoin Group, and typically were competitive.

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Bowdoin Group

• Bates
• Bowdoin
• Carleton
• Colby
• Connecticut
• Dickinson
• Franklin and Marshall
• Grinnell
• Hamilton

• Macalester
• Middlebury
• Oberlin
• Trinity
• Vassar
• Wellesley
• Wheaton
• Williams

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Review Committee

• Initially asked by President Marshall to compare
  our benefits with the Northeast Nine group, learn
  about other benefit options and opportunities and
  recommend cost-neutral benefit changes.
• Later amended to include possible additions for
  consideration in budget process for fiscal year
  2005 (July 1, 2004).

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Current Benefits Review

• For this review we used the Northeast Nine
  because it is our comparison group for faculty
  salary and other topics.
• Showed that we were ahead in some areas and
  behind in others.
• Formed three sub-committees to further study
  medical/dental, retirement/tuition, work/family.

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Northeast Nine Schools

• Bates
• Colby
• Connecticut
• Hamilton
• Haverford

• Hobart and William Smith
• Muhlenberg
• Trinity
• Wheaton

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Benchmarking Summary Competitive programs

• Medical
• Dental
• Life insurance
• Tuition remission
• Vacation and Personal days (staff)
• Holidays (staff)
• Sick leave (staff)

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Benchmarking Summary Non-competitive
programs

• Retirement/savings
• Retiree medical
• Health care flexible spending account
• Short-term disability
• Long-term disability

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Benefit Cost/Participation Breakdown
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Costs Breakdown
NOTE Total actual benefits cost last year
6,506,100
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Tuition Breakdown
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Other Breakdown
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Faculty/Staff Opinions
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Medical/Dental

• Medical contribution levels
• Medical plan design
• Reimbursement for waiving coverage
• Coverage for opposite sex partners
• Medical spending accounts
• Vision care

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Medical/Dental

• Medical coverage after retirement (age 65)
• Medical coverage for early retirement (before age
  65)
• Dental
• Long term care insurance

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Retirement/Tuition

• Early retirement plan
• College contribution to retirement
• Employee retirement contributions
• Tuition grant and reimbursement
• Tuition remission
• Tuition exchange
• Nursery school tuition

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Work/Family

• Short term disability plan
• Employee Assistance plan
• Eligibility for benefits for part-time employees
• Personal auto/home insurance and other options
• Relocation/realtor assistance

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Next Steps

• Hold discussion meetings with faculty and staff
• Present progress update to Faculty/Staff/Trustee
  Committee in late October
• Share report and faculty/staff feedback with
  Presidents Council and Trustees
• Work with Budget Advisory Committee through
  budget process
• Continue communications with faculty and staff of
  committees progress

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What would you like to talk about?

• ?

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Medical/Dental
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Medical Contribution Levels

• Overall competitive
• Very generous individual (90), less so dependent
  (66)
• Recommend more balanced contributions to 80
  individual, 70 dependent

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Medical Plan Design

• Double-digit rate increases, can slow these with
  changes in design
• Recommend office visit co-pay from 10 to 15
• Recommend emergency room visit from 50 to 75
• Harvard only, United does not allow this kind of
  change
• Overall cost saving of 2.5

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Reimbursement for Waiving Coverage

• Wheaton does not offer it though some
  institutions do
• Recommend not offering it

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Coverage for Opposite Sex Unmarried Partners

• Benefits currently offered to same sex domestic
  partners, not opposite sex
• Recommend offering under same conditions as same
  sex

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Medical Spending Accounts

• None currently offered
• Recommend offering a medical spending account

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Vision Care

• Some vision benefits in current plans
• Recommend not offering additional benefits

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Medical Coverage After Retirement (Age 65 )

• Currently not offering a plan
• Recommend participation in Mellon College
  Retirement Program
• MCRP would offer pre-retirement savings and
  Medicare supplement

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Medical Coverage for Early Retirement (Before Age
65)

• Faculty currently have access to early retirement
  medical staff do not.
• Recommend offering access to medical coverage for
  early retirement to staff
• Eligibility requirements apply, ends at Medicare
  eligibility

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Dental

• Current plan is very generous 90 individual,
  66 dependent
• Recommend balanced contribution between college
  and individual/dependent 50/50
• Recommend offering dental HMO in addition to
  Delta Dental

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Long Term Care Insurance

• Completely voluntary, fully employee-paid
• Recommend no change

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Retirement/Tuition
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Early Retirement Plan Stipend

• Legal counsel recommends modifications to this
  faculty plan to make it conform to current
  legislation
• Legally, can not be extended to staff

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College Contribution to Retirement

• Contributions low vs. comparison group
• Recommend increasing contribution over 4 years
  from 8 to 10 age 30 and above
• Recommend remaining at 6 for under age 30
• Recommend eliminating integration with Social
  Security wage base

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Employee Retirement Contributions Mandatory?
Matching?

• Currently no requirement to contribute and no
  college matching formula applied
• Recommend no change

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Tuition Grant and Reimbursement

• Not competitive with comparison group
• Recommend increasing both programs to 2000 per
  fiscal year

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Tuition RemissionDependents/Spouse/Domestic
Partner

• Generous and costly to the college
• Recommend employees hired on or after 7/1/04
  receive 75 of the cost of tuition.
• Hired prior to 6/30/04, would be on schedule
• 100 if begin July, 2004 through June, 2010
• 90 if begin July, 2010 through June 2014
• 80 if begin July, 2014 or after

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Tuition Exchange

• Currently participate in the Tuition Exchange
  program
• Recommend no change

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Nursery School Tuition

• Popular program, increased participation
• Recommend no change

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Work/Family Benefits
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Short-term Disability Plan

• Currently no option
• Recommend contributory plan (50/50)
• Would pay 60 of salary up to weekly maximum of
  1500

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Employee Assistance Plan

• Existing program, college funded
• Recommend expanding the program to include the
  financial planning and legal services option, no
  additional cost to employee

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Eligibility for Benefits for Part-time Employees

• Recommend extending eligibility for some
  full-time benefits to all employees who are .75
  FTE or greater for the year

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Personal Auto/Home Insurance and Other Options

• Current program appears to be meeting needs
• Recommend no change

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Relocation/Realtor Assistance

• Currently no program
• Recommend no change