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.

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?”

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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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