Rising Health-Insurance Costs Are Eating Into Employees' Paycheck Gains
- Premium increases surpass rise in wages, inflation, study says
- Workers being asked to shoulder a growing share of cost burden
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Rising health-care costs are eating up the wage gains won by American workers, who are being asked by their employers to pick up more of the heftier tab.
The average worker is shelling out $5,714 for a family health-insurance plan this year, 30 percent of the total $18,764 cost, according to an annual study from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Education Trust released on Tuesday. Five years ago, workers shouldered $4,316 of the $15,745 cost, or 27 percent.