Benefits July 19, 2005

Poll: Most Employers Not Helping with Gas Prices

July 19, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - US employers may offer a variety of employee benefits these days, but helping defray commuters' fuel costs doesn't appear to be one of them.
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A news release from HR.BLR.com, a Web site for HR professionals, said its online poll asked “What, if anything, are you doing to help employees deal with high gas prices?”

In addition to the vast majority (86%) who admitted they had no programs in place, answers from the 499 respondents to the online poll included:

  • encouraging more carpooling – 4%
  • encouraging greater use of mass transit – 2%
  • allowing more telecommuting – 1%
  • some combination of the above – 6%

“It may be that gas prices haven’t risen high enough yet to cause a crisis in commuting,” said Kevin Flood, managing Web editor of HR.BLR.com, in the news release. “There might also be a sense that employees wouldn’t embrace something like carpooling even if management encouraged it.”

A free copy of the report is available here . A free registration is required.

The poll was taken between June 29 and July 6.

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