How much are your employee benefits really worth?

You may need to do some research to find out how much your employer contributes to health insurance, retirement plans, and other benefits. Some benefits also have a non-monetary value, and people may value the same benefits in different ways.

For example, people with health problems are likely to appreciate guaranteed access to life or disability insurance that might otherwise be difficult to obtain or prohibitively expensive. Someone with student loans may value a program to help with educational debt much more than someone without student loan debt.

Now that open enrollment season is upon us again, it's a great time to review your employer's current offerings. Understanding the value of your benefits could recommit you to your current job, or make you realize it's time to look for a better deal. If you're thinking about becoming self-employed, you can better understand how much more you'll need to earn to replace your current benefits.

Here are some of the most common benefits, along with typical employer contribution amounts, according to Mercer, an employee benefits consultant.

Medical insurance: $5,000 to $20,000

Employer-provided health insurance plans range from basic to quite extravagant. Yet, on average, employers paid 83% of the $7,739 premium last year for individual coverage and 73% of the $22,221 premium for family coverage, according to KFF, a health insurance research organization.

You can find what both you and your employer paid for your health insurance last year on your 2021 W-2, said Paul Fronstin, director of health benefits research at the Employee Benefits Research Institute, or EBRI. The annual figure is often reported using a “DD” code.

Your employer may also itemize your contribution on your pay stub. A pay stub is a document that provides details of your gross and after-tax salary along with various deductions. You can often access your pay stub through your company's online payroll system; ask your human resources department for details.

Premiums are only one factor in evaluating your health care coverage, of course. Deductibles, copays, and provider networks are also important. Having access to different types of plans can make open enrollment more confusing, but it can also help you tailor your coverage to your situation.

Retirement savings plan: 3% to 10% of salary

EBRI surveys have consistently found that the benefit employees value most after health insurance is access to a retirement plan, with all other benefits coming in "a distant third," Fronstin said.

People who have workplace retirement plans, like 401(k), are much more likely to save for retirement than those who don't, according to AARP. These plans offer automatic paycheck deductions and many also enroll people automatically.

Most 401(k)s also come with company contributions — free money that can help employees build wealth faster. Among the most common contributions are 50% of the first 6% of the salary that the worker contributes, or a dollar-for-dollar contribution of 3% to 6% of the pay.

Employers can contribute an even higher percentage of salary to traditional pension plans, which promise a specific monthly benefit amount during retirement. That's in contrast to 401(k)s and other defined contribution plans, where the amounts you get at retirement depend on how much you contribute and the performance of your investments.

Pensions remain common among government agencies, universities and health care nonprofits, though only about 15% of private-sector workers have access to such plans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Everything else: zero to thousands

Employers that provide dental insurance typically pay $500 to $2,500 a year for the coverage, according to Sandra Sweeney, director of Mercer's practice. Life insurance averages $100 to $300 per employee, while disability insurance typically costs $250 to $1,500.

Employers may offer access to other coverage, such as additional life insurance, long-term care insurance, or pet insurance. Workers typically pay full cost, but can benefit from the policies' group rates, Frontstin said.

Help with education costs is also becoming more popular. About half of employers offer tuition assistance, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. And of the companies surveyed by EBRI last year, 17% offered some form of student loan debt assistance, while another 31% planned to do so.

Workers can also exclude up to $5,250 of tuition assistance from their income on their tax returns, according to the IRS. And through 2025, the cap also includes student loan repayment assistance.

Remember that your employer provides benefits to attract, retain and reward workers. If you're not sure what all of your benefits are, or how much they're worth, your human resources department will be happy to tell you, Frontstin said.

“Ask your employer,” Frontstin said. "It's not a secret."

This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. The content is for educational and informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Liz Weston is a columnist for NerdWallet, a certified financial planner, and the author of "Your Credit Score."

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