2020
E M P L O Y E E B E N E F I T S

The SHRM Benefits Survey is one of the longest-running annual research reports covering trends in
employee benefits in the United States.

Each year, SHRM launches the survey to HR professionals across the country to assess the popularity
and prevalence of specific employer-offered benefits. Data users may determine short- and long-term
changes in an array of benefits employers offer year-over-year, broken out by industry, organization size,
and region.

Historically, there are several reasons why benefits change. In the short term, new laws and employment
regulations, national economic shifts, and the changing job market can drive benefits trends, and over the
long run, demographic and societal changes make their impact.

In 2020, COVID-19 played an appreciable role in employee benefits—and to our data collection.

• Data collection was delayed due to COVID-19 and required a supplemental survey in 2021 because in
certain industries, fewer people were able to participate in 2020 because of increased workloads as
well as layoffs and furloughs.

• The 2020 survey is shorter to focus on core benefits offered across most organizations, like Family-
Friendly, Flexible Work, Healthcare, Leave, Professional Development, Retirement and Wellness
benefits.

• We removed questions related to business travel, relocation benefits and other benefits reliant on
physical access to a workplace.

• We added questions about how organizations adjusted their offerings throughout the pandemic to
determine some of the direct impacts of COVID-19 on employee benefits.

FOREWARD NOTE

When COVID-19 began triggering states of
emergency across the U.S. in March 2020,
organizations abruptly shuttered their offices
and instructed tens of millions of employees to
work from home indefinitely. Others were laid off,
furloughed, or placed in the category of essential
worker, putting in longer hours and assuming new
responsibilities while being physically present in
a locked-down world. Everyone needed more
support, whether for managing remote work, caring
for family members, or protecting their physical and
mental health.

Accordingly, benefits that address such challenges
were the ones more likely to have been expanded.

Benefits Expand to Support
Remote Work, Caregiving and
Health

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 2

Top 5 Expanded Employee Benefits (percentage of respondents
who indicated their organization increased the benefit)

EMPLOYEE OPTIONS
FOR TELEWORK

LEAVE TO CARE FOR
CHILDREN

TELEMEDICINE
SERVICES

78%

43%

39%

LEAVE TO CARE FOR
ADULT FAMILY

MENTAL HEALTH
SERVICES

27%

25%

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 3

Top 5 Reduced Employee Benefits (percentage of respondents
who indicated their organization reduced the benefit)

EMPLOYER MATCH FOR
401(K) PLANS

EMPLOYEE OPTIONS
FOR TELEWORK

COMPENSATION,
INCLUDING HAZARD PAY

7%

4%

2%

STUDENT LOAN
REPAYMENT PLANS

CHILDCARE
BENEFITS

1%

1%

Understandably, telework is at the top, followed by
telemedicine services, leave to care for children or other
family members, and mental health services. Social
distancing and caregiving needs made the top four a
priority, but the expansion of Mental Health services may
have resulted from employers recognizing the acute need
to support their employees under increased stress, both
work- and non-work related.

At the same time, other
benefits were scaled

back, typically as a cost-
cutting measure, but
reducing benefits in

2020 was relatively rare.

Employers continued to view healthcare as the benefit
they believe to be most important to employees—no
real surprise given the COVID-19 pandemic. The tension
between managing ever-increasing healthcare and
health coverage costs and attracting and retaining top
talent continues to be the central driver of employee
benefits offerings.

Annual family premiums for employer-sponsored health
insurance rose 4% in 2020, similar to the year-to-year
rise in workers’ earnings (3.4%) and nearly double
that of inflation (2.1%), according to the Kaiser Family
Foundation1.

However, rankings of importance for other benefits
shifted in 2020 compared to years past, with the
biggest impact to retirement benefits, which sunk from
its longtime position as second-most important to sixth.

Flexible work and leave emerged as the second- and
third-ranked benefits employers felt they could offer to
employees, respectively. Future surveys will determine
whether these benefits will remain in these positions
of importance in the years ahead as the world of work
recovers.

1 https://www.kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2020-summary-of-findings/

Many Traditional Benefits Assumed
New Importance During the
Pandemic

HEALTHCARE

37%

FLEXIBLE WORK

LEAVE

FAMILY-FRIENDLY

WELLNESS

RETIREMENT

PROFESSIONAL

55%

62%

76%

83%

83%

90%

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 4

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 5

BENEFITS SNAPSHOTS

Family-Friendly Benefits
In 2020, the often-conflicting demands of caregiving and work came under a harsh spotlight, with employers challenged to
ease employee stress. Closed schools and reduced options for eldercare weighed heavily on workers and their employers,
and for millions of working women, the situation was especially dire.

Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between February 2020 and February 2021, more than 2.3 million
women left the labor force, bringing women’s labor force participation rate to 57%—lower than at any time since 1988.
Caregiving was only one cause: Sectors with heavily female workforces were severely impacted by COVID-19 restrictions and
shutdowns.

Some of the largest 2019-to-2020 increases in our survey were seen in parental leave. Although there is no clear connecting
line to the events of 2020, these increases may reflect organizations’ heightened awareness of the advantages that come in
supporting the complex needs of employees with young children.

PAID MATERNITY LEAVE (includes coverage by
family/parental leave, other than what is covered by

short-term disability or state law)

PAID PATERNITY LEAVE (includes coverage by
family/parental leave)

PAID PARENTAL LEAVE

PAID ADOPTION LEAVE (includes coverage by
family/parental leave)

PAID FOSTER LEAVE (includes coverage by
family/parental leave)

26%
34%

53%
21%

30%
44%

17%
28%

39%
20%

28%
36%

13%
20%

28%
20202016 2019

The COVID-related
Taxpayer Certainty and
Disaster Tax Relief Act
of 2020, passed in
December 2020, allows
employers to modify their
flexible spending plans
(FSA) so employees can
make mid-year changes
such as new enrollment
or increasing, decreasing,
or stopping contributions,
but the rules only applied
for 2020. The new law
lets employers adjust their
programs in 2021 and
2022.

Employers also can
extend the permissible
period for incurring FSA
claims for plan years
ending in 2020 and
2021 and can establish
a special claims period
and carryover rule
for dependent care assistance programs when a dependent “ages out” during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Employers can also allow mid-year elections changes for dependent care assistance programs for plan years ending in 2021
and provide a grace period of up to a year for the remaining money in FSAs to be spent down.

The added burdens of caregiving driven by COVID—both in terms of increased illness and the closure of schools, daycares,
senior centers, etc.—drove more employers to increase paid family leave.

Parental Leave Benefits in 2016/2019 vs 2020

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
• Two-thirds of (66%) of organizations in the Retail, Wholesale, Transportation

& Warehousing, Utilities industry said they offered a Dependent Care FSA—
up 20 points since 2019 and the highest percentage since 2018.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 6

PAID FAMILY LEAVE

FAMILY LEAVE ABOVE
FEDERAL FMLA LEAVE

ELDERCARE LEAVE ABOVE
FEDERAL FMLA LEAVE

18%
24%

31%
21%
22%

31%
10%

13%
16%

Parental Leave Benefits in 2016/2019 vs 2020

Family-
friendly
benefits

were among
the most
changed

in 2020 as
organizations

adapted to
employee

needs

20202016 2019

Financial Wellness and Education Assistance

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 7

Financial wellness benefits remain relatively rare, with less than a quarter of organizations (24%) providing non-retirement
financial education—a 13-point reduction since 2019. Similarly, just 17% offer employer sponsored credit counseling services,
down from 19 percent the previous year

The percentage of organizations offering undergraduate or graduate tuition assistance dropped by 9 points since 2019 (47% in
2020), likely caused by their tight finances, concern about the quality of higher education being provided during the pandemic,
and reduced employee demand.

The SECURE Act also allowed employees to use tax-advantaged 529 accounts for qualified student loan repayments—up to
$10,000 annually. Ten percent of organizations offer their workers access to these savings plans, down 1 point since 2019. Just
1 of 100 employers contributed to these plans in 2020.

The percentage of employers offering student loan repayment benefits remained at the same low level as 2019 (8%). We
anticipate a ramping up of employers offering this benefit as the 2020 CARES Act allows employer-provided student loan
repayment as a tax-free benefit to employees. Employers can choose to make tax-exempt annual contributions of up to $5,250
per employee toward eligible education debt.

Education benefits are ripe for expansion, as employers could see real advantages in talent acquisition and retention by being
early adopters of these relatively rare but popular offerings.

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
• The prevalence of organizations

in the Healthcare and Social
Assistance industry offering
student loan repayment
assistance (17%) grew 9 points in
a year, compared to an 8-point
decrease for the Government &
Education industry (7%).

• The percentage of organizations
in the Leisure & Hospitality
industry offering credit counseling
service as a benefit was halved to
10% in 2020.

Flexible Work Benefits

While remote work has been the focus of workplace changes during
the pandemic, flexibility remains a critical benefit to workers as
they return to workplaces, as well as for those who never left their
worksites. Flexibility may include compressed workweeks, flexible
full-time hours and even flexibility in break arrangements.

Flexible work arrangements can reduce tardiness and absenteeism
among workers and can make it easier for employers to recruit
workers valuing flexibility. Workers who are also caregivers may use
flexibility to better meet the needs of the children or elders they care
for.

As organizations worked to respond to changing conditions, the
number of organizations providing flextime during core business
hours in 2020 (50%) is 7 points lower than in 2019; however, this drop
was largely offset by an increase in organizations providing less-
restricted flextime outside of core hours—up 2 points to 32%. Overall,
about half of organizations provide flextime during core hours, and
about a third provide flextime outside of core business hours.

Flexible Work Benefits in 2016/2019 vs 2020

2016 2019 2020
Flextime during core business hours 51% 57% 50%
Flextime outside of core business hours 28% 30% 32%
Compressed workweek 29% 32% 32%

20202016

Healthcare
Some health insurance plans and other healthcare benefits offered by organizations showed very small increases, but more
declined slightly in 2020, and likely as a cost-saving measure.

MEDICAL FLEXIBLE
SPENDING ACCOUNT (FSA)

HEALTH SAVINGS
ACCOUNT (HSA)

EMPLOYER
CONTRIBUTION TO HSA

HEALTH
REIMBURSEMENT

ARRANGEMENT (HRA)

67%
70%

68%
50%

58%
59%

32%
41%

40%
20%

19%
17%

2019

However, organizations expanded supplemental health benefits
in almost every category, seemingly in response to a widespread
pandemic that was causing higher-than-usual rates of illness and
hospitalizations.

CRITICAL ILLNESS
INSURANCE

HOSPITAL INDEMNITY
INSURANCE

LONG-TERM CARE
INSURANCE

INTENSIVE CARE
INSURANCE

LONG-TERM CARE
INSURANCE FOR FAMILY*

31%
43%

48%
21%

26%
32%

27%
33%

39%

16%
21%

19%
17%

25%

20202016 2019

*Long Term Care Insurance for Family was not asked in 2016

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

• 45 percent of organizations in
the hard-hit Leisure & Hospitality
industry offered employees
an HSA in 2020—an 18-point
decrease since 2019 and the
lowest prevalence since 2017.

• 63 percent of organizations
in the Retail, Wholesale,
Transportation & Warehousing,
Utilities industry offered
employees a medical Flexible
Spending Account—up 16 points
since 2019 and the highest
prevalence in the last five years.

• 49 percent of organizations
in the Retail, Wholesale,
Transportation & Warehousing,
Utilities increased employer
contributions to HSAs—a 9-point
boost since 2019 and the highest
percentage in the last five years.

Health Insurance Benefits in 2016/2019 vs 2020

Supplemental Health Benefits in 2016/2019 vs 2020

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 8

Coverage for mental health, family planning
and other specific health services also
rose in every category we surveyed.
While mental health coverage rose just 1
percent, coverage for other services that
significantly impact mental wellness and
quality of life increased. This could be a
reflection of organizations becoming more
aware of health and well-being during
the pandemic and growing demand from
employees generally.

MENTAL HEALTH
COVERAGE

CONTRACEPTIVE
COVERAGE

IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION
COVERAGE

INFERTILITY TREATMENT
COVERAGE (NON-IVF)

EGG FREEZING FOR
NONMEDICAL REASONS

GENDER REASSIGNMENT
SURGERY COVERAGE

6%
7%
10%

3%
2%

5%

27%
20%

29%

26%
19%

28%

80%
71%

78%

85%
84%
85%

Healthcare benefits saw
minor decreases in 2020
as organizations coped

with COVID-related
financial hardships

Specific Health Services Benefits in 2016/2019 vs 2020

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 9

20202016 2019

Over half (53%) of
U.S. organizations
offered paid time

off to vote in 2020,
a major shift since

we began measuring
the benefit in 2017

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 10

Almost all organizations offer Vacation Leave (98%) and Sick Leave (95%) to their largest group of employees, although both
dropped 1 point since 2019. Seven percent of organizations surveyed offer Open or Unlimited leave, up 1 point over 2019.

COVID-19 legislation brought changes to Family Leave in 2020.1 Organizations offering paid family leave increased by 7
percentage points from 2019 to 31% in 2020, likely due to the impact of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)
and state and local legislation requiring employers to provide paid leave in some localities. Still, many workers cannot afford
to take unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) when they are sick or need to care for family members.
In addition, the administration of FMLA leave is a significant burden on many organizations because of the patchwork of state
and local paid leave regulations and new 2020 leave legislation. Shifts in leave data for 2020 should be viewed considering
the unique year rather than indicators of important leave trends.

For the first time since we began asking on the Benefits Survey in 2017, more than half of organizations (53%, up 10 points from
2019) offered their workers paid time off to vote. Most states have laws requiring employers to provide time off to vote in some
circumstances, but not every state requires that time to be paid.2

1 Many employers made statutorily permitted or required changes once the pandemic hit, and some survey respondents likely provided their
organization’s policy at the time of the survey in 2020/ 2021.
2 https://www.workplacefairness.org/voting-rights-time-off-work

Leave

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 11

2016 2019 2020
Paid vaction time 97% 99% 98%
Paid sick time 93% 96% 95%
Paid time off (PTO) including both vacation and
sick time – 63% 66%
Paid open/unlimited leave 4% 6% 7%

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

• 44% of organizations in the Construction industry said they
offer paid maternity leave beyond what is required by short-
term disability or state law—up 29 points since 2019 and the
highest percentage in the last five years.

• 51% of organizations in the Professional & Business
Services industry said they offer paid parental leave, up 16
points since 2019 and the highest percentage in the last five
years.

• 89% of organizations in the Healthcare and Social
Assistance industry said they offer up to 12 weeks unpaid
leave to care for immediate family, up 25 points since 2019
and the highest percentage in the last five years.

COVID-
19-related
legislation,
including

the FFCRA
(Families First
Coronavirus

Response Act)
had a major

impact on leave
benefits for

2020

Paid Leave in 2016/2019 vs 2020

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 12

Professional Development
Organizations that encourage employee development and professional education will benefit in the short term from upskilling
and retaining current staff and increasing employee engagement. And those benefits will compound over time as staff move
into leadership roles and help the organization grow in the years ahead.

Unlike many other benefits in our report, Professional Development is not subject to statutory or regulatory requirements, nor
is it locked in by a benefits selection process. For that reason, these benefits tend to be much more reactive to the dramatic
changes in work we’ve seen during the pandemic.

In a year where virtually every business faced changes, organizations were forced to adapt quickly to new pandemic-related
public health measures, remote work, new customer service approaches and more. Time and budgets being limited, fewer
organizations provided training to keep skills current (77%, down points from 2019). However, the number of organizations
providing formal training for new skills increased by 29 points to 74%1.

1 We asked respondents to our 2020 Benefits survey to report the benefits that their organizations were providing in 2020 prior to the pandemic but
anticipated that some respondents would tell us about the benefits their organization was offering when data was collected in the fall of 2020.

FORMAL TRAINING TO
KEEP SKILLS CURRENT

FORMAL TRAINING TO
DEVELOP NEW SKILLS

PROFESSIONAL
MEMBERSHIPS

78%
87%

77%
42%

45%
74%

88%
83%

81%

Professional Development Benefits in 2016/2019 vs 2020

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

• 78% of organizations in the Construction
industry said they offer formal training or
education provided by or paid for by employer
to develop new skills—up 40-points since 2019
and the highest percentage in the last five
years.

COVID-19-related
legislation,

including the
FFCRA (Families
First Coronavirus

Response Act) had
a major impact on
leave benefits for

2020

20202016 2019

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 13

Retirement
Following a surge in 2019, the number of organizations offering a traditional 401(k) in 2020 dropped back to 2016-2017 levels
(down 3 points to 91% in 2020). Traditional defined pension plans (9 points in 2020) also decreased 3 points to their lowest in
5 years. The movement away from these plans may reflect cost-cutting measures from employers, and the corresponding 4
point rise in those offering Roth 401(k)s, which allow tax-free withdrawals, may indicate these investments are more attractive
to employees than a 401(k) during an uncertain economic climate. SHRM will be watching to see if this movement continues
beyond the COVID-19 period.

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
• Fewer organizations in the Government &

Education industry offered a traditional defined
pension plan in 2020 (57%) than in 2019 (69%)—the
lowest percentage in the last five years.

• Many more organizations in the Healthcare and
Social Assistance industry (71%) offered 401(k)
hardship withdrawals—a 31-point increase since 2019
and the highest percentage in the last five years.

• 57% of organizations in the Leisure & Hospitality
industry offer loans against savings plans—a
22-percentage point increase since 2019 and the
highest prevalence percentage in the last five years.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 14

Retirement Benefits in 2016/2019 vs 2020

TRADITIONAL 401(K) OR SIMILAR DEFINED
CONTRIBUTION RETIREMENT SAVINGS PLAN

ROTH 401(K) OR SIMILAR DEFINED
CONTRIBUTION RETIREMENT SAVINGS

PLAN

TRADITIONAL DEFINED PENSION PLAN
FOR ALL EMPLOYEES

20202016 2019

90%
94%

91%
51%

59%
63%

25%
22%

19%

Hardship withdrawals increased 18 points to 72% in 2020, and loans against 401(k) plans increased 12 points to 59%, likely
driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and provisions in the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act,
enacted in March 2020. The CARES Act allows workers financially impacted by the pandemic to take early withdrawals from
their 401(k) plans with delayed tax liability or take out loans up to $100,000 of their 401(k) balance, with up to six years to repay.

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019 also stimulated action on retirement
benefits, increasing the opportunity for small businesses to establish retirement and education plans for their employees. They
could now set up “safe harbor” retirement plans that are less expensive and easier to administer and offer retirement plans to
part-time workers more readily.

Many small businesses took advantage of these new opportunities by expanding automatic enrollment in retirement plans for
new or existing employees, which jumped 16 points over 2019 to 43% (among organizations with less than 100 employees).

Wellness Benefits

Even as COVID-19 swept through the population, many benefits promoting physical wellness in the workplace decreased in
2020. This may be due to the difficulty in 2020 of delivering programs in the physical workplace or the inability of employees
to utilize incentives like gyms, personal trainers, or physician visits. On the other hand, benefits that are more easily offered
online or practiced solo were more likely to increase.

Wellness Benefits in 2016/2019 vs 2020

GENERAL
WELLNESS PROGRAM

ONSITE SEASONAL
FLU VACCINATIONS

HEALTH RISK
ASSESSMENT

61%
59%

52%
54%

61%
52%

42%
44%

34%

20202016 2019

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 15

HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUM DISCOUNT FOR
PARTICIPATION IN WELLNESS PROGRAMS

REWARDS OR BONUSES FOR COMPLETING CERTAIN
HEALTH AND WELLNESS PROGRAMS

STRESS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

PERSONAL OR LIFE COACHING

MEDITATION/MINDFULNESS/CONTEMPLATIVE PROGRAM
(SUBSIDIZED, UNSUBSIDIZED, OR REIMBURSED)

17%
31%

20%

14%
25%

6%

14%
21%

37%

18%
11%

41%
39%

30%

20202016 2019

CONCLUSION

The COVID-19 pandemic was likely the cause of most movement in employee benefits in 2020 due to the adjustments
organizations made to support employees whose work and family life were so disrupted by the demands of social distancing.
Often these adjustments were encouraged or required by new COVID-related employment legislation.

Only time will tell how
many of the changes
from the 2019-2020

benefits landscape were
as a result of COVID-19,
but without doubt, the
pandemic will have a
lasting effect on the

kinds of benefit offerings
that employees demand
from organizations going

forwards

These results may be used as a starting point to
estimate which employee benefits employers decide to
change in the future, either by maintaining, expanding,
or reducing them relative to their pre-pandemic state).
For the 2021 and 2022 Employee Benefits survey,
SHRM will be watching closely to see if trends in
benefits prevalence that emerged this year will continue
or return to levels seen in prior years.

Employee benefits will likely play a stronger role in
attracting talent, as organizations experience a 2021
“turnover tsunami.” More U.S. workers are quitting their
jobs than at any time in at least two decades: In June
2021, the share of U.S. workers leaving jobs was 2.7%,
according to the U.S. Labor Department, a jump from
1.9% a year earlier and the highest level since at least
20001.

SHRM’s newest research on workplace culture supports
this, with more than half of working Americans (52
percent) now considering leaving their workplace—up
from almost half in 2019.

1 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jolts.pdf

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS 2020 | 16

To collect data sufficient to be used throughout the rapidly changing
workplace landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic, we adjusted our
sampling methodology somewhat as compared to previous years. We
continue to collect from our membership of more than 300,000 HR
professionals. However, rather than the simple random samples of SHRM
members that we’ve used in the past, for 2020 we employed a stratified
sampling methodology to ensure that we had coverage of all organization
sizes, regions, and industries we planned to include in this report.

The data used in this report were collected from 2,504 HR professionals
through SHRM membership across the United States. All respondents were
employed by an organization at the time they completed the survey.

Initial data collection was conducted between September 28, 2020,
through November 10, 2020. Supplemental data were collected from May
17, 2021, through June 28, 2021. All survey respondents were asked to
provide answers on what employee benefits their organization offered
during plan year 2020, unless otherwise specified. The data is unweighted.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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