Trying to figure out if you should offer Louisiana disability benefits to offer your employees? More and more employers are choosing to include disability insurance policies, also called income protection policies, in their employee benefits packages. Providing disability insurance to your employees helps ensure that your business can both hire and retain quality workers.
Although employees can receive Louisiana disability benefits from federally funded programs, privately-run disability insurance policies are important to offer your current and future employees.
When it comes to disability insurance policies, Louisiana disability benefits are generally the same as the disability benefits offered in any other state. Income protection policies guarantee that an individual will still receive a portion of their job’s wages even if they cannot work because of an accident or illness.
Disability insurance policies are not the same as workers’ compensation insurance, as disability insurance does not provide coverage for workers injured while on the job. Health insurance is also not the same as income protection, as income protection plans do not pay for hospital bills or other medical care. Instead, disability insurance protects a percentage of an employee’s salary if a disability or accident that happened because of non-work events prevents them from returning to their job.
Although the exact coverage percentage will vary from plan to plan, most Louisiana disability benefits from income protection plans cover about 60% of the employee’s earnings. There will typically be either a monthly or weekly cap on the amount an employee can receive through this policy.
There are two main kinds of income protection plans: short- and long-term.
A short-term disability insurance plan covers a percentage of an employee’s typical paycheck on a temporary basis. Short-term disability policies typically last between 9 and 52 weeks, with 26 weeks being the most common.
Some short-term disability plans also cover pregnancies, both those with complications and without. If you desire to give your employees additional financial assistance during their maternity leaves, look into specific short-term income protection plans that offer pregnancy coverage.
Unlike short-term disability policies, which are designed to last only temporarily, long-term disability insurance policies are intended to cover injuries or disabilities that force an employee to leave work for much longer periods of time.
Long-term Louisiana disability benefits through insurance policies sometimes last until an employee reaches 65 years old, or retirement age. Other long-term plans offer coverage for a set number of years, usually between two and ten.
Long-term income protection plans tend to vary in how they define disabilities, too. While some policies will define disability as a lasting condition that prevents the employee from fully performing their typical job, other plans will only activate if the employee cannot adequately perform any job.
Unless there are complications that last longer than eight weeks, long-term disability insurance plans generally will not cover pregnancies.
Employers who offer private Louisiana disability benefits to their employees generally do so to hire and retain high-quality workers. Generous benefits packages are a great way to improve employee retention. According to a survey from the Society for Human Resources Management, nearly one-third of employees say that their benefits package at their current workplace would be their primary reason for going on the job hunt within the next 12 months.
However, some business managers struggle over whether they can afford to provide disability insurance plans for all employees. If you’re worried about the financial toll of including income protection plans in your benefits packages, consider offering these plans as voluntary benefits. This would mean that your employees could elect to cover most or all of the insurance costs through regular deductions in their paycheck.
It’s also important to realize that insurance policies don’t always cost the sticker price. Working with a PEO such as Canal HR can help you save on benefits by allowing us to negotiate lower group rates on your behalf.
Ultimately, no employer wants to see their workers’ lives forever damaged by a bad accident or an unexpected chronic illness. But some managers worry about the financial cost of providing private-pay Louisiana disability benefits to their entire staff.
When you choose to work with Canal HR, we’ll explore all of the income protection plan options and discounts that you and your staff could be eligible for. As we have plenty of experience finding the best disability insurance plans for a variety of small businesses, we know how to find the right disability plans to save you both time and money.
Contact us today to learn more about how Canal HR can handle your employees’ Louisiana disability benefits and let you focus more on the business operations that only you can perform.