Better benefits or higher wages? - By GUY BOULTON, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Employers bear most of the cost of paying for health benefits, right?
Think again.
When health care costs rise sharply, wages remain flat or decline after adjusting for inflation.
What this means is the rising cost of providing health insurance isn't coming out of your employer's profits. It's coming out your paycheck.
'It sounds absolutely trite, but there is no such thing as a free lunch,' said Amitabh Chandra, a health care economist at Harvard University. 'Somebody is paying for it. It is usually you.'