Traditional and family-friendly benefits practices in local governments: Results from a national survey

Traditional and family-friendly benefits are an essential and costly component of the compensation and human resources management system. This research effort surveyed 427 local governments regarding their benefits practices. The results indicate that local governments provide a competitive traditional benefits package (health, pension, etc.) but provide few family-friendly benefits (child care, elder care, etc.). Municipal governments provide greater breadth and depth of benefits coverage than county governments. The provision of family-friendly benefits is positively associated with the number of needs assessment strategies, the dummy variable for municipal government, the number of structural solutions implemented, state management of selected benefits and the provision of part-time benefits.