Workers with Employer-Sponsored Insurance in the March 1998 Current
Population Survey
Charts from Tabulations by ASPE
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Office of Health Policy
Department of Health and Human Services
By Gene Moyer 202-690-7861
Page 1 [Table of Contents]
Introduction
The March 1998 Current Population Survey, conducted each year by the
Bureau of the Census, is one of our major sources of national data on persons
with Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance in 1997.
Page 2 [Table of Contents]
Non-Aged Adult Civilian Wage
Workers: Coverage by Employer-Sponsored Insurance in 1997
Non-aged adult civilian wage workers are non-military workers aged 18 to
64 who work for a wage. The definition excludes workers who work without pay or
who are self-employed in unincorporated firms as well as very young and very
old workers and military personnel.
Workers can be covered by employer sponsored insurance in two ways:
through their own employers or as a dependent of some other worker (usually a
spouse or a parent) who is covered through an employer. In this chart book,
workers who have coverage from any employer are counted as having
Employer-Sponsored Insurance (ESI).
In the charts which follow, the height of the bar represents the
probability that a worker with the characteristic was covered by ESI in 1997.
Page 3 [Table of Contents]
Summary
- 74% of workers had ESI in 1997.
- In the following charts, one theme is dominant. High wage workers,
especially those in large firms, tend to be covered by health insurance through
an employer.
- In fact, as the last chart shows, a high wage worker in a small firm
is somewhat more likely to be covered through an employer than a low wage
worker in a large firm.
Page 4 [Table of Contents]
Age
Younger workers are less likely to have ESI than older workers, but
workers in the 18-24 year old range are considerably less likely to have the
coverage than workers in any other age range. One explanation for this must be
that many younger workers have not yet qualified for benefits with the firm for
which they are working. Another explanation may be that their wage is too low
for them to afford the coverage. There is a hint in the data that workers who
have retired or who are about to retire lose their coverage or allow it to
lapse. A somewhat smaller percentage of workers in the 55-64 year old class had
the coverage than in the 45-54 year old class.
Page 5 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by Age
Class in 1997
Page 6 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by
Amount of Work in 1997
- Workers who worked full time for the entire year were more likely to
have ESI than other workers.
- 82 percent of them, but 61 percent or less of other workers, had the
coverage in 1997.
Page 7 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by
Amount of Work in 1997
Page 8 [Table of Contents]
Gender
- Male workers were about as likely to have ESI as female workers in
1997.
Page 9 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI in 1997
by Gender
Page 10 [Table of Contents]
Marital Status
- In 1997, married workers had the highest probability of having ESI.
83% of them had the insurance.
- Separated and never married workers had approximately equal
probabilities of having ESI at around 58-59%.
- Widowed and divorced workers were somewhat more likely to have the
coverage than other unmarried persons, but considerably less likely than
married workers.
Page 11 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by
Marital Status in 1997
Page 12 [Table of Contents]
Race/Ethnicity
- Non-Hispanic white workers had the highest probability of having ESI
in 1997 (78%).
- Other groups had probabilities of having the coverage somewhat below
the average.
- Hispanic workers had the lowest probability of having the coverage
(53%). This is no doubt a function of citizenship and occupation as we shall
see later.
Page 13 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Wage Workers with ESI in
1997 by Race/Ethnicity
Hispanics of any race are counted as Hispanic.
Page 14 [Table of Contents]
Citizenship
- Citizens, about 93% of civilian adult wage workers, were about as
likely to have ESI as all such workers.
- A majority of non-citizen workers lacked ESI in 1997. Citizenship is
important in helping persons get jobs which include health insurance as part of
the wage.
- Still, 24% of citizen workers did not have ESI in 1997.
Page 15 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Wage Workers with ESI in
1997 by Citizenship
Page 16 [Table of Contents]
Relationship to Family Head
- Workers who lived in traditional families--a married couple or a
single person, often with children--were relatively likely to have ESI in 1997.
- Minor Children of Head are employed students since they must be aged
18 or older to be included.
- Children too old to be insured as a dependent; workers related to,
but not the child of the head; and workers not related to anyone else in the
household were less likely than average to be covered by health insurance
through their employers in 1997.
- Workers who lived alone were less likely to have the coverage than
those in a traditional family, but were more likely to have the coverage than
workers who lived in families, but were not a head, a spouse or a minor child.
Page 17 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI in 1997
by Relationship to Family Head
Page 18 [Table of Contents]
Hourly Wage
- Wage workers with low wages were also less likely to have insurance
through their employer in 1997. The probability of having the coverage rose
with the wage.
- About half of workers earning under $8 (under $17,000 per year), but
9-10 percent of workers with wages of $16 per hour (about $33,000 per year) or
more did not have ESI in 1997.
Page 19 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI in 1997
by Hourly Wage
Page 20 [Table of Contents]
Distribution of All Workers by
Hourly Wage Category
- As the next chart shows, almost three fourths of all workers are in
the two categories with the lowest probabilities of having ESI in 1997.
- Over a third of all workers are in the category in which about half
have ESI.
Page 21 [Table of Contents]
Distribution of All Workers by
Hourly Wage Category in 1997
Page 22 [Table of Contents]
How Workers Received ESI in
1997
- Workers can receive ESI from their own employer and in their own name
or they can receive ESI from a relative, most often a spouse or a parent.
- The following chart shows that full time workers are most likely to
get ESI in their own name; part time workers are most likely to get it from
someone else’s employer.
Page 23 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI in Own
or Other Name by Amount of Work in 1997
Page 24 [Table of Contents]
Education
- Workers with higher levels of education were more likely to have
health insurance through their employers in 1997.
- Those with the lowest likelihood of having the coverage were those
who stopped school at or before eighth grade.
- College graduates and especially those with graduate training were
most likely to have the coverage because they were more likely to have jobs in
which health insurance premiums were paid by the employer as part of the wage.
Page 25 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI in 1997
by Education
Page 26 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by
Major Occupation
- In 1997, occupation was linked to the probability of a worker’s
having ESI, but the linkage was not very clear.
- Managers, professionals, and technical workers were most likely to
have the coverage.
- Workers with low skills and little education (laborers and farm or
fishery workers) were least likely to have the coverage.
- Workers in administrative support were very likely to have the
coverage, perhaps because they work closely with managers, professionals, and
technical workers.
- Skilled workers, machine operators and transportation or moving
workers were more likely to be unionized and so to have coverage through
bargaining agreements.
- Service workers tended to work for small firms which are less likely
to offer coverage to their workers, especially their low paid workers.
Page 27 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by
Major Occupation in 1997
Page 28 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers in 1997 with ESI
by Major Industry
- Major industry did not make much of a difference in the chance of
having the coverage.
- Workers in the retail, non-professional services and agriculture,
mining, and construction industries were somewhat less likely to have the
coverage than workers in other industries.
- Government workers were somewhat more likely to have the coverage
than other workers
Page 29 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by
Major Industry in 1997
Page 30 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by
Class of Worker in 1997
- Government employees were more likely to be covered by ESI than
workers in other classes. Private wage workers were only a little more likely
to have the coverage than the self-employed who have
- incorporated their businesses.
Page 31 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by
Class of Worker in 1997
Page 32 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by Firm
Size in 1997
- While over half of workers in the smallest firm size have the
coverage, the chance of having the coverage grows with firm size group.
- Still, 17% of workers in the largest sized firms did not have the
coverage in 1997.
Page 33 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by Firm
Size in 1997
Page 34 [Table of Contents]
Distribution of All Workers by Firm
Size in 1997
- Less than half of all workers are in firms of size 500 or more where
more than 80% of workers have ESI.
- A large proportion of American workers were in firms with low
probabilities of having ESI. A quarter were in firms with fewer than 25
workers. In those small firms 60% or fewer workers had ESI.
Page 35 [Table of Contents]
Distribution of All Workers by Firm
Size in 1997
Page 36 [Table of Contents]
Census Geographic Division
- The percent with ESI in 1997 was highest in the East North Central
sub-region (80%), but other northern Census Divisions were not very different.
- The percent with coverage was somewhat lower in the Western and
Southern sub-region
Page 37 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI in 1997
by Census Geographic Division
Page 38 [Table of Contents]
Census Geographic Division
- The final chart shows the percent of workers with ESI by firm size
and by hourly wage.
- High wage workers in small firms were more likely to have ESI than
low wage workers in the largest firms. Low wage workers in the smallest firms
were least likely to have the coverage.
Page 39 [Table of Contents]
Percent of Workers with ESI by Firm
Size and Hourly Wage in 1997
