Employers in the San Francisco Bay Area sponsor big-ticket health benefits packages, with an average cost of $10,400, according to cloud-based HR services provider TriNet’s latest SMBeat report, a monthly analysis of small business employment and human capital economic indicators.
The data is sourced from TriNet’s more than 9,000 clients and approximately 240,000 worksite employees in the United States. The report found employer contributions to benefits vary throughout industries and geographies.
Across the TriNet population the total average annual cost of health insurance is roughly $9,300, and on average employers contribute about 76 percent.
In the New York Metro, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area, employers contribute a similar percentage to health benefits, averaging between 75 percent and 78 percent. However, the monetary value for workers in the Bay Area is about $2,400 higher than the New York and Los Angeles areas.
Like New York, the financial services sector in the Bay Area has the highest overall average health benefits value at nearly $13,000 per year, according to the report.
“As the implementation of the Affordable Care Act continues, companies and employees are presented with new options when selecting their health insurance coverage,” the report noted. “This means employers are faced with additional regulations and complexity when weighing if they will maintain health benefits despite the recent changes in national health insurance.”
The report also takes a look at the growth of various small business verticals across America, and found the tech sector experienced another month of strong growth in April.
Nationally, the tech sector saw 1.87 percent net job growth, better than March’s growth of 1.76 percent. Atlanta led the tech sector in April with 3.33 percent net job growth. The Boston area experienced the second highest net growth rate, 2.82 percent.
The Silicon Valley, New York Metro and Los Angeles Metro areas also performed well this month with 1.92 percent, 1.91 percent, and 1.34 percent net job growth. The Denver-Boulder area grew more slowly than the other tech hubs, growing at a rate of only 0.70 percent.
In addition, the tech sector continues to boast one of the highest salaries across the TriNet population, with average annual salaries of approximately $105,000, putting it behind the life sciences’ $112,000 annual salaries and the financial services sector’s annual pay of $108,000.
The Boston area has the second highest annual salary, about $106,000, behind Silicon Valley, which pays approximately $121,000. The Los Angles and Denver/Boulder areas are neck-and-neck, with annual wages at about $102,000 and $101,000.
The Atlanta area follows with nearly $97,000, and the New York Metro has the lowest average pay at approximately $96,000 per year.