We don’t think we’re tipping our hand to say that we believe that in an ideal world, 100% of commutes are at least partially subsidized by employers. To get there, however, we first need to understand the roadblocks that are keeping employers from offering commuter benefits. As part of our State of Commuter Benefits Report, we surveyed over 400 HR professionals to get our answers. (Want to learn more? Download the full report here.)

Of the employers surveyed, 14.9% don’t offer commuter benefits, 57% of them employed under 500 people. Initially, we theorized these were mostly remote employees, who were working from their homes and not interested in commuter benefits. That turned out not to be the case–only 7.7% of them were working remotely. 

Far and away the largest concern at 50.1% was the cost of the program to the company. Trailing slightly behind was lack of employee interest, at 29.2%, followed by lack of available transit options, challenges associated with working with HR systems or IT, and unclear value to the company. 

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It’s not as though these companies are against any kind of transit benefit. When asked to think about the value to their employees of a benefits program, 64.6% thought it would save employees money, 32.3% thought it would reduce employees' commute times, 30.8% thought it would help employers meet environmental or social goals, and 29.2% thought commuter benefits would encourage employees to return to the office. These sentiments are similar to those of the employers we surveyed who did offer commuter benefits.

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Employers who don’t offer standard commuter benefits do offer other, related benefits and perks. 34.4% of them offered bike parking, 15.6% offered electric vehicle charging, and 12.5% offered corporate shuttle service. 

There’s also evidence of growing interest in non-traditional types of commuter benefits. When asked to imagine which specific benefits their employees would be most excited about, the top answers were flexible commuter debit cards (63.1%) and public transit passes (61.5%). This makes sense, as this is traditionally what most employers have offered in terms of commuter benefits. But there’s also evidence of growing interest in non-traditional types of commuter benefits.Respondents also believed their employees would be excited about:

• rideshare benefits (ie, Uber or Lyft) (55.4%)
• carpool planning (50%),
• guaranteed ride home (40.6%),
• commute planning for riders ( 39.1%),
• electric vehicle charging (32.8%). 

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Takeaways & TL;DR

• Cost-effective solutions to commuter benefits administration are appealing to HR leaders who do not already have programs in place, especially when paired with employee excitement, RTO mandates, or larger organizational environmental goals. Want to learn more about how to launch your own commuter benefits program? Jawnt can help!

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