The workforce of the future promises to be very different from that of the past. A generation ago, there were few workers over the age of 65, but in the future we will see many more employees remain on the job longer than ever before. At the same time, as global markets grow more closely integrated, companies are having to reinvent the workplace, which requires more skilled, more reliable, and more flexible employees.Benefits for the Workplace of the Futureexplores how workforce and workplace changes are reshaping the form and design of employee benefits and what these trends portend for the future of compensation. An increasingly diverse range of workers and new types of companies are forcing a redefinition of what it means to be an employee, what it means to offer someone a job, and how to compensate workers. These changes are spurring nontraditional benefits, such as child and elder care, flexible medical benefits, employee assistance programs, and investment education. Major developments in the pension and health care arenas provide new opportunities and challenges for rank and file workers as they are asked to take on more responsibility for their own benefits design. Contributors to the volume--academics, employers, consultants, and policymakers--evaluate these trends and their implications. They chart new methods for developing benefits plans and provide assessments of past trends and clear-eyed forecasts for future benefit challenges. The book will be invaluable to those who seek to structure and benefit from well-designed compensation packages.

Olivia S. Mitchell is Professor of Insurance and Risk Management and Executive Director of The Pension Research Council at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. David S. Blitzstein is Director of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Michael Gordon is an attorney in Washington, D.C., specializing in labor law. Judith F. Mazo is Senior Vice President and Director of Research for the Segal Company.