The Case for Offering Health Benefits (Even When It's Hard)

Health insurance ain’t cheap. But there is good data to support the claim that small businesses that offer health insurance benefits see positive impacts in retention, productivity, and overall performance.

Retention is both a feel-good metric and an important financial one. We’ll focus on the latter here. The hospitality sector is notorious for high turnover — Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data puts it at 73.8% per year — and it comes with a real cost. A Cornell University School of Hospitality Management study found that employee turnover costs hospitality companies an average of $5,864 per employee.

It doesn’t take a big imaginative leap to see that better retention leads to greater productivity. (After all, a tenured employee will typically outperform a trainee.) The data bears this out. Scholars Ulya Tsolmon and Dan Ariely studied 15,000 small U.S. firms and found that firms offering health insurance benefits gain financial advantage even after accounting for the expense — with workers effectively giving back through higher productivity, which translates into stronger profits.

Health benefits are rare in the hospitality sector. Only 32% of hospitality workers currently have healthcare coverage, compared to 77% of private industry workers overall, according to BLS data. That gap presents a real opportunity for microbreweries, brewpubs, and taprooms. If — and we realize it’s a big if — you can swing health benefits financially, you may find it gives you a meaningful edge over other businesses in the sector.

So the question becomes: Can you swing it financially? We’ve partnered with Decisely to help breweries explore coverage options for their teams. While we can’t guarantee they’ll have a plan that works for every business, they can at least help you get a sense of the market. And for what it’s worth: we don’t stand to benefit if you pursue a plan with them.