Employee benefits are an essential and costly component of the compensation and human resource management system. This research effort surveyed 118 New Jersey local governments on their employee benefits practices. The survey results clearly indicate that New Jersey local governments are competitive with the private sector in terms of traditional benefits (health, pensions, dental coverage, and so on). Local governments lag behind the private sector, however, in the deployment of key family-friendly benefits such as child care, elder care, flexi-place, flextime, and job sharing. Recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of local government benefits plan administration include comprehensive needs assessment, labor-management cooperation, and state-level technical assistance.
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