As Walmart Buys Online Retailers, Their Health Benefits Suffer
If a ModCloth worker with a child wanted to lower the annual deductible to $3,500 — the lowest the company offers for this type of plan —
and receive a $1,000 company contribution, the biweekly premium would be about $136, or just under $2,000 more per year than the Amazon plan.
“My concern is they bring their model with them regardless of what was going on before they got there,” said Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities, who served as chief economic adviser to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Blake Jackson, a Walmart spokesman, said: “We’ve put a lot of thought into creating a total package, including both compensation
and benefits, that offers more than what we’ve had in the past.”
Mr. Jackson pointed out that as new employees of the retail giant, many of the workers had gained
benefits like a 401(k) retirement plan with a company match and a stock purchase plan.
A similar type of plan would cost an Amazon worker with a child about $60 in biweekly premiums,
with Amazon contributing $1,000 into a reimbursement account, according to the company.
Health care benefits tend to be harder to come by in retail than in any other industry, with just over half of all retail employees eligible
for company plans, versus more than 90 percent in manufacturing, according to a survey this year by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
ModCloth workers were also given the option of sticking with a more conventional insurance plan, but those who do will face premiums
that are roughly double their old premiums for family coverage, and their deductible will rise from nothing to $2,000.