SURVEYDESIGNANDMETHODS Thevastmajorityofquestionsareaskedonlyoffirmsthatofferhealthbenefits. Atotalof1,832ofthe2,137respondingfirms indicatedtheyofferedhealthbenefits. Theresponserateforfirmsthatofferhealthbenefitsisalso33%. Weaskedonequestionofallfirmsinthestudywithwhichwemadephonecontactbutwherethefirmdeclinedtoparticipate. Thequestionwas“Doesyourcompanyofferahealthinsuranceprogramasabenefittoanyofyouremployees?”. Atotalof 3,938firmsrespondedtothisquestion(including2,137whorespondedtothefullsurveyand1,801whorespondedtothisone 8 question). Theseresponsesareincludedinourestimatesofthepercentageoffirmsofferinghealthbenefits. Theresponserate for this question is 61%. Beginningin2014,wecollectedwhetherfirmswithanon-finaldispositioncode(suchasafirmthatrequestedacallbackata later time or date) offered health benefits. By doing so we attempttomitigateanypotentialnon-responsebiasoffirmseither offeringornotofferinghealthbenefitsontheoverallofferratestatistic. In2017,640ofthe1,801firmresponsesthatsolely answeredtheofferquestionwereobtainedthroughthispathway. FIRMSIZECATEGORIESANDKEYDEFINITIONS Throughoutthereport,figurescategorizedatabysizeoffirm,region,andindustry. Unlessotherwisespecified,firmsize definitionsareasfollows: smallfirms: 3to199workers;andlargefirms: 200ormoreworkers. FigureM.2showsselected characteristics of the survey sample. A firm’s primary industry classification is determined from Survey Sampling International’s (SSI) designation on the sampling frameandisbasedontheU.S.CensusBureau’sNorthAmericanIndustryClassification System(NAICS).Afirm’sownershipcategoryandotherfirmcharacteristicsusedinfiguressuchas3.3and6.22arebasedon respondents’answers. Whilethereisconsiderableoverlapinfirmsinthe“State/LocalGovernment”industrycategoryand thoseinthe“public”ownershipcategory,theyarenotidentical. Forexample,publicschooldistrictsareincludedintheservice industryeventhoughtheyarepubliclyowned. FigureM.3presentsthebreakdownofstatesintoregionsandisbasedontheU.SCensusBureau’scategorizations. State-level dataarenotreportedbothbecausethesamplesizeisinsufficientinmanystatesandweonlycollectinformationona 8 EstimatespresentedinFigures2.1,2.2,2.3,2.4,2.5,and2.26arebasedonthesampleofbothfirmsthatcompletedtheentiresurveyandthosethatanswered just one questionaboutwhethertheyofferhealthbenefits. The Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research & Educational Trust / Page 18