How Much Do Employers Contribute to Health Insurance Premiums?
Benchmarks for single and family coverage, how they vary by employer size, and what nonprofits should weigh when setting their share.
Key takeaways
- Private employers pay on average 80% of the premium for single coverage and 69% for family coverage.
- State and local governments pay more: 87% for single and 72% for family coverage.
- The average annual premium is $9,325 for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage.
- Workers at smaller firms pay a much larger share of family premiums than workers at larger firms.
Health insurance is usually the most expensive benefit a human services organization offers, and the employer's share of the premium is the number staff feel most directly in their paychecks. Set it too low and frontline staff may decline coverage or leave for a hospital or county job. Set it too high and costs can outpace reimbursement rates.
This guide draws on two national sources: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) National Compensation Survey and the KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey. Neither breaks out nonprofits or human services specifically, so treat the figures as a national baseline.
Employer share for single (employee-only) coverage
For employee-only coverage, employers in private industry pay an average of 80% of the premium, and employees pay the remaining 20%. State and local government employers pay 87%.
| Employer type | Employer pays | Employee pays |
|---|---|---|
| Private industry | 80% | 20% |
| State and local government | 87% | 13% |
| All civilian workers | 81% | 19% |
Source: BLS National Compensation Survey. BLS's March 2026 release shows private industry unchanged at 80%.
Employer share for family coverage
Family coverage is where employers differ most. Private employers pay an average of 69% of the family premium, leaving employees to pay 31%. State and local governments pay 72%.
| Employer type | Employer pays | Employee pays |
|---|---|---|
| Private industry | 69% | 31% |
| State and local government | 72% | 28% |
| All civilian workers | 69% | 31% |
Source: BLS National Compensation Survey.
What that means in dollars
According to KFF's 2025 survey, the average annual premium for employer-sponsored coverage is $9,325 for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage, up 5% and 6% from the year before.
For family coverage, workers contribute $6,850 a year on average, and employers pay the remaining $20,143. For a direct support professional or behavioral health technician, a contribution of that size is a large share of take-home pay, which is why the family-coverage share often decides whether staff enroll at all.
Why BLS and KFF numbers differ. KFF reports that workers pay about 16% of single and 26% of family premiums on average, a bit less than BLS's 20% and 31%. The two surveys use different samples and methods. Both point to the same picture: employers typically cover most of the single premium and roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the family premium.
How contributions vary by employer size
Smaller employers have less buying power, and it shows up mainly in family coverage:
- KFF finds workers at firms with 10 to 199 employees pay 36% of the family premium on average, compared with 23% at larger firms. For single coverage the share is the same, 16%, at both.
- BLS finds the employee share of single premiums is 21% at establishments with fewer than 50 workers and 19% at those with 500 or more. At the largest establishments, employees pay 25% of family premiums.
A 60-person home health agency and a 900-person behavioral health system face very different premium markets, so compare yourself with organizations of a similar size.
Eligibility: who can enroll matters as much as the share
In human services, a large share of the workforce is often part-time or works variable hours. Two policy choices shape how many staff actually benefit from your premium contribution:
- Whether part-time staff can enroll. Some organizations offer the medical plan only to full-time staff. Others extend it to part-time staff, sometimes at a lower employer share.
- The minimum weekly hours for eligibility. Under the Affordable Care Act, employers with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees generally must offer affordable coverage to employees averaging 30 or more hours a week or risk a penalty. Many employers set a lower threshold, such as 20 or 25 hours, to reach more of their workforce.
How to use these benchmarks
Mapped onto the ranges used in the NonprofitWorth survey, the national private-industry averages fall here:
| Coverage | National average employer share | Survey range |
|---|---|---|
| Employee-only | 80% | 75–89% |
| Family | 69% | 50–74% |
If your employer share is below these ranges, especially for family coverage, expect staff to raise it at hiring and at open enrollment. If you can't raise the share, a lower eligibility threshold or a richer single-coverage contribution can be a more affordable way to stay competitive.
As with any national figure, these averages mix industries and regions. The useful comparison is with organizations in your sector, of your size, in your state.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Medical plans: Share of premiums paid by employer and employee for single coverage (Table 3).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Medical plans: Share of premiums paid by employer and employee for family coverage (Table 4).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Medical care premiums in the United States.
- KFF, 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey and Summary of Findings.