“The easiest thing to do would be: ‘I need additional compensation outside of the benefit package to buy my own private health care,’” he said. “So maybe, you negotiate and say, ‘My expenses are too high, my dental expenses are really high. This plan isn’t covering me sufficiently for what I need.”
Usually, any plan that covers north of 75% of the health expenses is considered a strong plan, Ostro said.
Check the disability coverage, too
Looking closely at disability coverage is also important, Ostro said.
“That’s one of the biggest risks for an individual that is typically hard or expensive to cover outside of work,” he said.
Ostro said a few key terms can dictate the robustness of disability coverage. For instance, some long-term disability plans define occupation as any work, at or outside the main job. If a worker can no longer do the job at work but finds a second lower-skilled job to get by, the insurance company could refuse to provide disability coverage.
Ostro said it’s also important to look at the length of the disability coverage—whether it’s two years or up until the age of 65, for instance. But there’s room to be creative beyond what’s in those structured packages.
Negotiate benefits for greater work-life balance
Climie said work-life balance sits at the heart of benefits negotiations for many young workers. There are pieces such as negotiating sabbaticals, professional development coaching, parental leave policies and even fertility benefits for both sexes.
“I’m seeing people get really creative on the different things that are important to them, and they minimize different friction points in the workplace,” she said.
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