🔒Employers part of solution in closing income gap

Too often these days we read negative headlines about employers allegedly not doing right by their workers.

Whether it's the national debate over a $15 minimum wage or attempts in Connecticut to fine companies that pay low wages or establish a public retirement savings plan, employee pay and benefits — or lack thereof — are constantly coming under scrutiny, particularly in a politically charged election year.

It's important, however, to bring some balance to the debate and highlight ways employers are not only investing in their workers, but setting them up for future success.

Last week, the Lumina Foundation released a study — conducted by Accenture — detailing the effectiveness of Bloomfield insurer Cigna's education-reimbursement program, which provided more than 2,200 workers up to $8,000 annually between 2012 and 2014 to pursue a bachelor's or master's degree.

The program has had a major impact on participants. Entry-level and mid-management employees who pursued higher-level degrees leveraging Cigna's financial support, for example, saw their wages grow 43 percent higher than workers who didn't participate.

Additionally, Cigna employees who took advantage of the program were 10 percent more likely to be promoted and 8 percent more likely to stay with the company.

Surveyed Cigna employees also said the program improved their career opportunities and outcomes. Cigna benefited as well: Its program funding yielded a 129 percent return on investment, meaning, as the study explains it, the insurer got back every dollar it invested and avoided an additional $1.29 in talent-management costs.

Cigna is one of many Connecticut employers that offer education-reimbursement and other perks, and they should be commended for it. While we realize such programs aren't fully altruistic, their mutual benefits help the company and employees.

They also help the state's economy, by growing our bench of highly educated workers, a key advantage in the burgeoning knowledge economy. In fact, in response to the study's findings, Cigna actually raised its financial support to employees pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees (to $10,000 and $12,000 respectively) in key areas crucial to its business, including cybersecurity and data analytics — positions other Connecticut companies have reported facing shortages in.

The study's findings also provide lessons for businesses, mainly that it pays to invest in your workers. The right training and education programs can not only sharpen and raise employee skill levels, it can create a major selling point in talent recruitment and retention.

Policymakers should also take something away, mainly that most employers do more good than harm in raising the financial and economic prospects of their workers.

Too often, the private sector is blamed for widening this country's income gap, and politicians point to executive's multi-million-dollar pay packages as excessive and the root of inequality, when the story is much more complex than that. Globalization, technology advances and a slow recovery from the Great Recession are much greater forces restraining lower- and middle-class wealth gains.

While we understand income inequality is a problem that deserves serious policy considerations, the private sector is more ally than foe in raising the economic prospects of American workers.

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