¹ Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, September 2017. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Department of Labor. December 15, 2017.

² A report from Insurance Journal says early employer respondents to Mercer’s National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans 2017 indicates employer respondents expect their average cost per employee for health benefits will rise by 4.3 percent in 2018. For the past five years, the average increase ran 3 percent.

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