Employee Benefits

U.S. companies will pay on average 15.4% more in 2003 to provide their workers with health insurance than they did this year, when rates climbed 13.7%, says consulting group Hewitt Associates ( http://was.hewitt.com/hewitt ). Some corporations will absorb most of the increase, but others will ask employees to contribute more than in the past. Next year, workers will pay on average 19% of the cost of their own coverage and 24% of dependent care premiums. Hewitt bases its projections on information from more than 2,000 U.S. health plans.