As Walmart Buys Online Retailers, Their Health Benefits Suffer<br />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 —<br />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.<br />“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<br />and Policy Priorities, who served as chief economic adviser to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.<br />Blake Jackson, a Walmart spokesman, said: “We’ve put a lot of thought into creating a total package, including both compensation<br />and benefits, that offers more than what we’ve had in the past.”<br />Mr. Jackson pointed out that as new employees of the retail giant, many of the workers had gained<br />benefits like a 401(k) retirement plan with a company match and a stock purchase plan.<br />A similar type of plan would cost an Amazon worker with a child about $60 in biweekly premiums,<br />with Amazon contributing $1,000 into a reimbursement account, according to the company.<br />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<br />for company plans, versus more than 90 percent in manufacturing, according to a survey this year by the Kaiser Family Foundation.<br />ModCloth workers were also given the option of sticking with a more conventional insurance plan, but those who do will face premiums<br />that are roughly double their old premiums for family coverage, and their deductible will rise from nothing to $2,000.
