Don't overlook these expenses when negotiating your salary

Job seekers often think salary and title are the end all be all during negotiations. Health insurance costs are frequently overlooked yet extremely impactful. They can swing the pendulum for or against a job—since what looks like a big bump in salary could actually be a loss if you’ll end up paying more for health care, for example.

Plus, this consideration keeps getting more and more important as health care costs rise. HR Consulting firm Mercer estimated that employers’ costs per employee for health benefits would go up 4.2% on average in 2016. Additionally, the Affordable Care Act mandates a tax on companies that have particularly high-value benefits, so 54% of Mercer survey respondents plan to make changes to their plans in order to skirt the tax. Together these changes often mean workers are saddled with more of the expense.

The shift upwards in employee costs may be having an impact on morale. In a recent Monster poll, 27% of respondents were “not at all satisfied” with their employer’s health insurance plans and 25% were only “somewhat satisfied.” Take that as motivation for you to learn about the plans you’d be eligible for as a new employee before you accept the job. Your strategy:

Wait for the right moment

In many cases, salary isn’t discussed until the end of your interview process, and you should wait until that time to bring up questions about health insurance costs. Otherwise, you’ll look presumptuous.

Ask the right questions

Most companies don’t include these costs on their public-facing websites. So simply ask your contact in HR to send you information about the company's health care plan options, employee costs and descriptions of coverage.

When I worked in recruiting, very few candidates asked about this, but when someone did, I was more than happy to send on the information. Additionally, if their offer occurred during open enrollment, I sent them the upcoming plan as well so they could ascertain what out-of-pocket costs they would have to pay going forward.

Compare your options

Pay attention to premiums (the per-paycheck cost of coverage), deductibles (the amount you'll need to spend before insurance kicks in), and coinsurance (what it costs every time you seek care). Also, if you’ll be covering a spouse or children, note whether the costs rise exponentially for this or whether there are any exclusions—for example, some plans do not cover a spouse who has access to insurance at his or her own job or will charge a substantially higher premium in such case.

Finally, if you’d likely choose a plan that allows access to a health savings account (HSA), be sure to include any employer contributions in your math.

Once you have numbers in front of you, look at the whole picture of what you’ll be earning versus what you’ll be paying compared to your current situation. If your pay net your healthcare costs would be lower or only a marginal increase, you might use this as a bargaining chip in your salary negotiations.

If information is inconclusive or unclear, ask to speak to a benefits specialist. This is part of your due diligence as a job seeker—so feel entitled to gather all of the information up front before you decide whether or not to accept the offer. Considering benefit plans are non-negotiable, your power as a job seeker is to discover this information sooner rather than later.

Monster’s career expert Vicki Salemi has more than 15 years of experience in corporate recruiting and HR and is author of Big Career in the Big City. Follow her on Twitter at @vickisalemi

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