When Small is Big: Opportunities for EAP in the Small Size Employer Market in the United States

Abstract

Based on a recent article published in 2022 in the American Journal of Health Promotion, this presentation focuses on the business opportunities for EAPs in the small employer market. Small employers, defined as having less than 100 employees, are a major part of the workforce in the United States. All data is from year 2021 March reports. In the private sector, they currently represent 97.5% of all work establishments and the 69 million workers they employ constitute 52% of all of workers. In the public sector, small employers are 59.5% of all work establishments but account for less than 2% of the total workers in state and local government organizations. Every 1 in 3 small employers in the US now offer an employee assistance program (EAP) benefit. This is up substantially from just 1 in 7 in 1999 (14% vs. 33%). Thus, about 21.9 million employees working for small employers today have access to an EAP. A key question, however, is what kind of value small employers are getting from their EAP when the providers range from low use “free” programs embedded in other insurance benefits, digital only providers that do not support the workplace, or full-service EAPs.