The Value of Teacher Benefits - Summary
Access to benefits. What benefits are offered to UCF teachers? (see part 1)
Quality of benefits. How complete and full is the coverage of each benefit? (see part 2)
Cost. How valuable is the benefit, and how much of a contribution do UCF teachers make to pay for each benefit. (see part 3) In each evaluation, I presented benchmarks for comparison, and I rated the relative position of UCF benefits against the market. Evaluating quality was the most difficult task because of a lack of good data, so I benchmarked UCF benefits against my own company's benefit plans, which are known to be very competitive. Here is a summary of the results:
Medical insurance (with prescription drug coverage) is the most important benefit offered, and UCF offers a quality plan. Moreover, UCF pays a larger share of the premium than most other employers. This is a competitive offering.
For dental, UCF offers a high-quality plan and UCF pays a larger share than most other employers. This is a very competitive offering.
For vision and disability income, the fact that UCF offers benefit plans is a competitive advantage, but the quality and cost sharing arrangements are mixed. Overall, I think these are competitive offerings (because there is coverage), even though the coverage could be better or less costly to the employee.
On life insurance, the benefit is provided at no cost to the employee, but it the amount of coverage is low compared to most employers. This benefit is not competitive. (Full disclosure: my employer is a life insurance company, but I do not work in sales!) Overall, UCF offers a competitive package of benefits. Moreover, UCF requires its teachers to contribute approximately $700-$1400 less per year to those benefits than a typical employer. So benefits are very good in our district, and are a definite plus for attracting and retaining Great Teachers.