Workspan Daily News Bytes for Oct. 31, 2025

2025 Family Health Insurance Premiums Average $26,993

Average family coverage premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance reached $26,993 this year, with workers contributing 25% (or $6,850) of that total and employers paying the remaining 75% ($20,143), according to the results of KFF’s 27th annual Employer Health Benefits Survey. KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) is a U.S. nonprofit organization that provides health policy information.

The study of more than 1,800 U.S. employers with at least 10 workers found family premiums are up 6% (or $1,408) from last year, similar to the 7% jump recorded in each of the previous two years. This year’s increase compares to general inflation of 2.7% and wage growth of 4% during the same period. Over the past five years, the cumulative increase in family premiums (26%) and in what workers pay toward those premiums (23%) is similar to inflation (23.5%) and wage growth (28.6%).

As shared in several recent Workspan Daily articles, most U.S. employers are bracing for higher healthcare costs in 2026, with insurers generally requesting nearly double-digit increases in most markets (large, small and individual). Employers in those studies and the KFF report have singled out pharmaceutical prices as a primary factor contributing to escalating premiums.

“There is a quiet alarm bell going off. With GLP-1s, increases in hospital prices, tariffs and other factors, we expect employer premiums to rise more sharply next year,” said Drew Altman, KFF’s president and CEO. “Employers have nothing new in their arsenal that can address most of the drivers of their cost increases, and that could well result in an increase in deductibles and other forms of employee cost-sharing again — a strategy that neither employers nor employees like but companies resort to in a pinch to hold down premium increases.”

Study Explores the Benefit Needs of Lower-Wage Workers

New research from Commonwealth and JPMorganChase found building up savings for retirement is the top financial priority of U.S. workers (44%) who earn low to moderate incomes (LMI), topping saving for emergencies (36%), saving for long-term goals (33%) and paying off credit cards (29%).

The financial entities’ survey asked more than 2,000 workers who earn LMI about the benefits they have access to, sign up for and value the most — providing an opportunity for employers to improve related outcomes through benefit design.

Other key findings include:

Only 52% of surveyed workers participate in a workplace retirement program. Among those not participating, 44% said their employer doesn’t provide retirement benefits. This means 21% of LMI workers don’t have access to workplace retirement benefits and 27% have access but aren’t using these benefits.
Healthcare costs are a widespread challenge. Nearly 40% of surveyed workers had medical debt. However, 84% of this group owed less than $5,000 and 62% owed less than $2,500, suggesting these costs are surmountable for many workers. Stronger employer health benefits — including health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible spending accounts (FSAs) — may help these workers manage their healthcare costs.
Workers want more frequent benefits communication, pointing to a low-cost way for employers to raise benefits utilization. Among workers surveyed:
- 27% were not sure what benefits were available through their employer;
- 50% wanted more frequent benefits information from their employer; and,
- 18% said they had not seen and/or received any benefits information from their employer in the last year.

Are Retention Bonuses ‘Wages’? A State Supreme Court Weighs In

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court provided its take on whether retention bonuses are “wages” in deciding the case Nunez v. Syncsort Inc. on Oct. 22.

In examining whether the defendant, a Massachusetts-based software company, violated the state’s Wage Act in the termination and compensation of the plaintiff, a senior finance manager, the high court ruled retention bonuses are not considered wages in a legal sense.

The company had paid the plaintiff the second of his two promised retention bonuses eight days after he was released as part of a larger reduction in force. The plaintiff argued that, under the Wage Act, the final bonus was due on his termination date. He sought the mandatory triple damages spelled out in the law.

In a unanimous ruling, the high court affirmed the lower-court decisions that the bonus was “contingent compensation” and, therefore, not a wage under the state statute. As opposed to “compensation paid solely in exchange for labor or services” (i.e., salaries, hourly pay, earned commissions), the court determined a retention bonus is “additional, contingent compensation.”

“[The court case and subsequent ruling is] a reminder that employers offering retention or incentive bonuses [in Massachusetts and elsewhere] should clearly document the contingent nature of the bonus — e.g., that payment is earned only upon continued employment through a fixed date and good standing in the interim,” law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP stated in a post on its website.

In other wage-and-hour law news:

Target agreed to pay $4.6 million to a class of more than 13,000 warehouse workers who said they were — from Aug. 6, 2019, and continuing onward — denied pay for time they spent going from their distribution centers’ entrances to their time clocks and time spent in security-screening and “badge-out” processes after clocking out.
A recent class-action lawsuit alleges videogame publisher Activision Blizzard (via its subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment) violated California break time rules by forcing employees to work through legally mandated rest and meal breaks. The lawsuit also claims the company controlled what employees did during breaks and, in some cases, denied those breaks altogether. The lawsuit cites California statutes and the state’s Private Attorneys General Act that require employers to relieve employees of all duties and relinquish control over how they spend their rest periods.
According to Bloomberg Law, Northrop Grumman settled a proposed class-action lawsuit with retirees concerning their pension benefits. This legal move resolves allegations that the aerospace and defense company and its pension plan administrator, in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), provided inaccurate benefit estimates and failed to provide federally required benefit statements to retirees. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2018.

New California Laws Nix ‘Stay-or-Pay’ Clauses, Expand Paid Leave

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 13 signed Assembly Bill 692 (“Employment: Contracts in Restraint of Trade”), which prohibits “stay-or-pay” clauses in employment contracts and makes it unlawful for employers to require workers to pay back training or other debts if they leave their job. The law (effective Jan. 1, 2026) also bans contracts that penalize employees for quitting.

This ban expands on existing California law against noncompete agreements, with limited exceptions for things like government-approved loan repayment programs and specific apprenticeship programs. Violators face penalties such as a minimum of $5,000 in damages per worker, along with legal fees.

Newsom, on Oct. 13, also signed Senate Bill 590 (“Paid Family Leave: Eligibility — Care for Designated Persons), which expands the state’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) program by allowing employees to take leave to care for a “designated person” with a serious illness. The law (effective July 1, 2028) defines such a person as anyone related by blood or whose relationship is “equivalent to a family relationship” (e.g., a close friend, partner or neighbor).

Upon filing a claim for family temporary disability insurance benefits, the employee must:

Identify the designated person for whom they are providing care; and,
State, under penalty of perjury, the nature of their close relationship.

Figures and Facts of the Week

Here’s a smattering of recent statistics covering the world of work:

10: The number of “durable” (a.k.a. soft) skills seen as most critical or valuable for today’s employers and workers, according to a survey by prehire assessment provider Plum. The top skills identified by the 59,000 respondents are: adaptation, communication, conflict resolution, decision-making, embracing diversity, execution, innovation, managing others, persuasion and teamwork.
37: The percentage of organizations that currently use artificial intelligence (AI) as part of their performance management process (with an additional 37% considering doing so), according to new “performance management and pay for performance” research from consulting firm WTW.
43: The percentage of large employers (5,000 or more employees) that currently cover GLP-1 drugs in their largest health insurance plan (compared to 28% that covered them in 2024), according to the responses for KFF’s Employer Health Benefits Survey.
63: The percentage of employers that anticipate increasing their hiring over the next 12 months, according to ZipRecruiter’s third annual Employer Survey, released Oct. 21. The online employment marketplace provider said respondents anticipate a particularly strong emphasis on entry-level roles.