Roughly two in every three small businesses in Louisiana allow their employees to take time off work to attend their children’s school activities, while 53% provide paid vacation and 27% offer health insurance, either through an employer-sponsored plan or by paying a portion of their employees’ own health insurance.
Those are among the findings of an opinion poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research on behalf of Small Business Majority. Other findings of the telephone survey, which has a high margin of error, at 9.52%, and included 106 small business owners with 100 or fewer employee in Louisiana: three in 10 provide flexible work schedules or opportunities to work from home, while 23% provide information on how to connect with public benefits.
The poll also found 38% of small businesses owners offer on-the-job training or financial assistance for education or training outside the job; 18% offer retirement benefits; and 20% offer financial counseling or access to financial institutions, products and services.
“As a business owner, offering benefits like health care and paid time off makes sense to me because it means that my employees know I care about them as people, not just workers,” says Wesley Watkins, owner of UDB Insurance in Alexandria, in a prepared statement accompanying the poll results. “My employees feel valued and know I’m looking out for their interests—and this helps me attract top talent, encourages them to come to work motivated and encourages them to stay with my business for a long time.”
The Small Business Majority is a national small business advocacy group that conducts opinion polls and economic research papers with a network of approximately 40,000 small business owners across the country. See its complete survey results with Louisiana small business owners.
