Growth in Employee-Benefit Plans

Employee-benefit plans in recent years have shown striking advances in the number of employees covered and in the amounts expended for contributions and benefits. To what extent have these advances outpaced the growth in the Labor force and the rise in the wage scale? Do they represent a real improvement for the individual worker in the adequacy and scope of the protection provided? This article, in addition to presenting statistical data on employee-benefit developments for 1954 and 1956, throws some light on these questions. It also considers the growth of private pension plans, which increasingly provide benefits supplementary to old-age, survivors, and disability insurance.