An educational briefing for CEOs and CFOs
Lower your payroll tax cost. Raise your employees' take‑home pay.
Workforce Tax Strategy™ is a compliant, employer-sponsored benefit structure that reduces what your company pays in payroll tax each year and redirects that value into higher net pay and expanded health and prescription access for your team.
Built for employers with 50 to 5,000 W-2 employees. No new budget line, no change to salaries or carriers, and results visible on the next pay cycle.
- Employer savings
- Recurring, per employee, every pay period
- Employee impact
- Higher net pay plus expanded care access
- Company cost
- Designed to be net neutral to the P&L
What this changes for your business
A smarter way to handle payroll tax and employee benefits at the same time.
Payroll tax is one of the largest fixed costs on your income statement, and it grows with every hire and every raise. Health premiums keep rising too, and your people feel that squeeze in their paycheck long before they read about it in a benefits summary.
This is not a new idea. Large employers have used this structure for decades as a standard part of their benefits design. The difference today is that mid-market companies can access the same advantage without building an internal administration team. It is straightforward, well documented, and already proven at scale.
Workforce Tax Strategy™ makes that same advantage available to employers with 50 to 5,000 employees. You lower a recurring tax cost, expand care access, and raise net pay without adding a new budget line or changing salaries.
Research and impact
An underutilized tax strategy, used frequently by large employers.
Pre-tax benefit programs are not new. They have been a standard part of large-company benefits architecture for decades. The gap is who has access to them.
offer pre-tax benefit programs
Bureau of Labor Statistics. At large establishments, pre-tax benefit programs are a routine part of employee benefits.
offer pre-tax benefit programs
Bureau of Labor Statistics. At small and mid-sized establishments, pre-tax benefit program access is less than half the rate of large employers.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
The mid-market opportunity
Why this matters for mid-market employers
For large employers, tax-efficient benefit structures are standard financial practice. Many mid-market companies still have the same payroll tax obligations but have not adopted the same.
of employees stay with their employer because of the benefits package
WTW 2024 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey. Benefits are now a primary retention lever, not a secondary perk.
of employees would leave for better benefits even with no change in pay
WTW 2024. For a large share of the workforce, benefits quality competes directly with base salary.
of annual salary is the typical cost to replace an employee
SHRM and Gallup research. Turnover expense includes recruiting, training, lost productivity, and institutional knowledge.
How it actually works
How the structure works in practice.
This structure has been part of large-company benefits architecture for decades. Here is how the dollars flow in four steps, before you ever speak with us.
Employee gross wages
Base pay, bonus, and regular compensation
Pre-tax benefit plan
Employer-sponsored and documented
Lower taxable wages
Payroll tax is calculated on a smaller base
Employer saves payroll tax
A recurring, per-employee reduction in FICA and unemployment tax cost.
Employee takes home more
Net pay rises because less tax is withheld on those same dollars.
Care access expands
Telehealth, mental health, and lower-cost prescriptions are funded from the same structure.
- 01
A qualified benefit plan is added to your existing payroll
Your company adopts a formal, documented employee benefit plan that sits alongside whatever health coverage you already provide. Nothing about your carrier, broker, or renewal cycle changes. The plan is layered onto payroll, not substituted for it.
- 02
A portion of compensation is redirected into that plan
Employees who enroll direct a defined portion of their pay into the plan before certain payroll taxes are calculated. Their gross compensation stays the same. What changes is the order in which the dollars are treated.
- 03
The employer wage base for payroll tax drops
Because the taxable wage base is lower, both the employer and the employee owe less in payroll tax on those dollars. This is not a deferral or a credit that reverses later. It is a permanent reduction realized every pay period.
- 04
Those savings fund expanded benefits and higher net pay
The employee side of the savings shows up as a larger paycheck. A portion funds a package of health, telehealth, pharmacy, and wellness services. The employer keeps the employer-side savings, which is what makes the program net neutral to your budget.
Run the numbers
Estimate the savings for your company and for your people.
Enter your payroll numbers below. The employer view shows what a smaller taxable wage base returns to the company. The employee view shows what lands in a worker's check.
Enter your W-2 count between 50 and 5,000
Fixed at our program average across enrolled groups
$38 per employee on a bi weekly payroll cycle
Employer savings come from a smaller taxable wage base. Social Security and Medicare run 7.65 percent, and a portion of unemployment tax is reduced as well.
Annual employer savings
$17,843
Recurring every year that participation holds
Per pay period
$1,487
Realized each month, not at year end
Per participating employee
$79
225 employees enrolled
Wages sheltered
$225,000
Total payroll dollars moved into the plan
Estimates for education only. Actual results depend on payroll structure, wage levels, participation, and state tax treatment. A written projection is prepared during your briefing.
Clearing up the confusion
What this is, and just as importantly, what it is not.
What it is
- A formal employee benefit plan adopted by the employer
- A permanent reduction in payroll tax on participating wages
- An immediate increase in employee net pay
- A funded package of health, telehealth, and pharmacy services
What it is not
- A tax shelter, a loophole, or an aggressive filing position
- A replacement for your major medical plan or your broker
- A deferral that reverses or creates a future liability
- A pay cut or a change to anyone's stated salary
The financial case
What this puts back on your balance sheet.
Lower employer payroll tax cost
Employers commonly see a meaningful annual reduction in payroll tax burden for each participating employee. The savings are recurring, they scale with headcount, and they show up every pay period rather than once at year end.
Designed to be net neutral to the company
The expanded employee benefits are funded by savings generated inside your existing payroll structure. There is no new budget line to defend and no premium increase to absorb.
Higher take-home pay without giving raises
Participating employees typically see more money in their next check. Base salary, bonus plans, and compensation bands are untouched, so your merit cycle and pay equity work stay exactly as they are.
Established and well documented
This is a long-standing, widely used employer benefit structure, not an aggressive or gray-area position. Every participating employer receives plan documents, annual testing, and full audit support.
The retention case
Your people get a raise and better care in the same announcement.
Retention is rarely lost over a single issue. It is lost when pay feels flat and care feels out of reach at the same moment. This program addresses both, and employees experience it on their next paycheck rather than at the next open enrollment.
Around-the-clock virtual care
Unlimited telehealth visits at no cost to the employee or their household. This is consistently the most used piece of the program because it removes both the copay and the wait.
Lower cost prescriptions
Access to a broad list of generic and maintenance medications at deeply reduced or zero cost, delivered to the employee's home. For a worker managing a chronic condition, this alone can be worth more than a raise.
Whole health support
Mental health counseling, chronic condition management, health coaching, and preventive screenings, layered on top of whatever major medical plan you already offer.
Works with your current plan
The program is carrier agnostic. You are not replacing your broker, changing carriers, or reopening your renewal to make it work.
Who this fits
Built for 50 to 5,000 employees.
At fifty employees the savings become material enough to matter. Past five thousand, plan design usually needs a custom build. In between is where this program does its best work, particularly for employers with hourly staff, distributed teams, or high turnover in frontline roles.
Discovery call, thirty minutes
We review headcount, payroll structure, and current benefit design to confirm fit. No census file is required to start.
Modeled projection
You receive a written projection covering employer tax savings, per-employee net pay increase, and participation assumptions specific to your payroll.
Implementation
Our team handles plan documents, payroll integration, compliance testing, and employee enrollment communications.
Ongoing administration
Year-round support, annual testing and documentation, an employee service line, and reporting your CFO can hand straight to an auditor.
Due diligence
The questions CFOs ask first.
- Does this change what we pay our employees?
- No. Base salary, bonuses, and compensation bands stay exactly as they are. The program changes how a portion of compensation flows through payroll, which is what produces both the employer savings and the employee's higher net pay.
- Do we have to change our health insurance carrier or broker?
- No. The program layers on top of your existing plan and is carrier agnostic. Most participating employers keep their broker of record and their current renewal cycle untouched.
- How much work is this for HR and payroll?
- Implementation is usually measured in hours rather than weeks. We coordinate directly with your payroll provider and supply enrollment materials, employee communications, and a dedicated service line so routine questions never reach your HR team.
- What happens to an employee's Social Security or retirement contributions?
- This is the right question to ask, and we walk through it in detail on the briefing using your actual pay bands. The plan is structured conservatively, and any effect is modeled and disclosed in writing before you decide anything.
- Is this defensible if we are audited?
- Yes. Every employer receives complete plan documentation, annual nondiscrimination testing, and audit support. The underlying structure has been in use by employers for decades and we administer it conservatively by design.
- What size company is this built for?
- The economics work best for employers with 50 to 5,000 W-2 employees on payroll. Below fifty employees the savings often do not justify the administrative effort, and we will tell you that directly rather than sell you a program you do not need.
Getting started
It is easy as three steps.
Have a short briefing
Thirty minute meeting. We explain the structure, the compliance posture, and answer the questions your CFO will raise.
Review your projection
We model your actual headcount and pay bands and send a written savings projection for the company and a sample paycheck impact for your employees.
Launch on your next payroll
We handle plan documents, payroll integration, enrollment, and employee communications. Savings begin on the first cycle after launch.
Next step
Request your thirty minute executive briefing.
We walk your leadership team through the structure, the compliance posture, and a projection modeled on your actual headcount. If the numbers do not justify the effort, we will say so on the call.
- No census file or payroll data required to begin
- A written savings projection within days of the call
- Nothing to sign and no cost to evaluate