Retirement, health insurance benefits outweigh others on employees' list of desired benefits

Survey respondents chose, by nearly two to one, compensation packages that emphasize more, quality benefits over take-home pay. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Among the benefits offered to workers by their employers, health insurance and retirement savings rank higher than other deductions and incentives. In addition, 43 percent of working Americans trust their employers most for high-quality health care coverage compared with either the government (state or federal) or the individual health insurance market.

A survey by the American Benefits Council, titled Americans’ Views on Employee Benefits, finds that 27 percent of employees put “tax deferral on contributions to employer-sponsored retirement savings like a 401k to encourage retirement saving” as their first choice when asked to choose the most important tax benefit over the next 10 years.