The Effect of the Recession of 2008 – 2011 on Work Benefits and Social Insurance Expenditures: An International Comparative

Work benefits in the United States are relatively unregulated by international standards and are treated more as elements of an employment contract than as a basis for the social protection of workers. That wage and salary rates vary with unemployment levels has been well established, but a question remains as to whether the offering rate of work benefits including paid time off, healthcare and retirement benefits also varies with economic cycles. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the World Bank, the article examines whether changes in direct compensation are commensurate with changes in benefit expenditures throughout an economic cycle and whether growth and contraction in national expenditures on social insurance have an inverse relationship with growth and contraction in national GDP. Changes in expenditures on direct benefits and social insurance costs in the United States are compared with the same measures intwenty other countries.