American Benefits Podcast

Tune in for thought-provoking conversations with smart, creative thinkers in the fields of benefits, economics, government, demography and more. This show is brought to you by the American Benefits Council, a Washington D.C. trade association that advocates for employers, connecting public policy and private-sector solutions to shape employee benefits for the evolving global workforce. www.AmericanBenefitsCouncil.org | @BenefitsCouncil

Episode 33: Benefits Calling: The World of Church Plans with Rev. Jeff Thiemann

Dec 18, 2019

While we often focus on the Fortune 500 companies that dominate the world economy, another group of employers plays a fundamental role in the daily lives of millions of Americans: the churches, religious institutions and affiliated organizations that employ hundreds of thousands of clergy, lay workers, and their...

Episode 32: It’s a Big World After All: Going Global with Mark Azzarello, International Paper

Dec 3, 2019

The American economy crosses borders, oceans, time zones, cultures, languages and great walls. And therefore, compensation and benefits has gone global, too. For many multinational companies, figuring out how to scale employee benefits for a global population is a critical element of their economic competitiveness. Here...

Episode 31: All Debts, Public and Private - Helping Employers Help Employees Pay Down Student Loans

Oct 8, 2019

Retirement benefits are obviously one pillar of employee health and financial security, but despite all that employers do the “retirement savings gap” between what people have and should have, continues to grow. One of the biggest barriers to savings is student loan debt, which now exceeds 1.5 trillion in the...

Episode 30: All In the Families - Building a Better Health Care Engine with Families USA’s Frederick Isasi

Aug 12, 2019

We talk all the time about employee benefits for the evolving global workforce, but the truth is that benefits are important for more than just workers. For example, many covered lives are those of the spouses and children of workers with job-based health insurance. The voice of these families in Washington DC belongs...

Episode 29: The Compensation of ‘Independents’ - Designing Portable Benefits with the Aspen Institute’s Shelly Steward

Jul 18, 2019

The independent workforce – a potent mixture of temp workers, contingent workers, “gig” workers and others – represents anywhere between 4 and 40% of the overall labor market and constitutes an interesting economic challenge: in a nation where employment is central to one’s health and retirement benefits, how...