Finance alert: It is not only your investments you should be scrutinising these days. When businesses face slower foot traffic resulting in restricted cash flows, employee benefits may get short shrift. Some of you may not have the health insurance, pension, old age contributory and life insurance from the group employee benefits that you think you have.

Before every business owner out there has a high blood pressure moment, please not that this article is not an attempt to portray the vast majority of caring conscientious employers in a bad light, not at all.

But! Anecdotal commentary is surfacing to indicate that there have been episodes of working individuals here in the normal course of daily work life cycle filing for benefits, such as health insurance only to be told that they have no coverage!

When times are good, few employees pay much attention to their payroll deductions. While none of us like receiving less than our gross wage per hour, our eyes are usually drawn to only one number, the net amount paid to us.

We take our cash, spend some, allocate some and hopefully, save some. Blithely and trustingly, we assume that the deductions and employer matches are withheld, deposited to our accounts with various agencies and accumulates or insures us, be it health, national pension, old age contributory pension, and others.

What is the financial ramification of the example of a single individual paid monthly with a gross salary of $5,000 per year, with estimated normal deductions and employer matches required by Bermuda employment law? Note that if you are a guest worker, self-employed, part-time, an owner of a business, or my calculations are off, your benefits and deductions may differ - but in the table shown above, you get the picture. I've also rounded amounts off for easy-to-read convenience.

Are you surprised at this number - $870? I bet it is more than you thought! Yes, indeedy, the total amount deducted from your paycheque each month represents a 17 percent payroll hit to you. Now add in the amount required by law that your employer has to match: pensions, payroll tax and health insurance - $1,130.

This is a princely sum each month to keep you insured, saving for the future and eligible for social services. Now multiply the $2,000 above times 12 months. This now adds to $24,000 per year per employee. Now multiply by five or ten employees, $120,000 or $240,000 annually in benefits. It takes only a tiny stretch of the imagination to see that this is a large component of a businesses overhead.

The good employers always fulfill this trusted role in supporting their employees. Perhaps now there is a glimmer of understanding of the financial commitment made to staff when retailers and service providers urge us to support them and "Buy Bermuda".

Your money: Understand the consequences of losing these contributions. Unfortunately, in any group, there are individuals (and employers) who do not honour their commitments. Short answer, it is your responsibility and your problem if you think your benefit tank is close to empty. And quite frankly, up until now, the punishment for those so crassly negligent has been a complete joke.

The last case that I recall where a local employer stiffed his crew for more than a year in all categories, was a $250 dollar fine. Flagrantly stealing from not only his/her loyal employees and our (not his!) public purse was a means to get to keep the money. His excuse, he was working on his house and "got a little short". This outrageous conduct should not and cannot be tolerated.

In the United States, Canada and the UK, anyone that abuses Public Trust funds is punished, quickly and severely. First, by having wages garnished and bank accounts frozen, less than three months after the first delinquency!

Then, if failure to pay is still on the books, the defendant's property is attached, the payroll tax due, plus penalties and interest to date is levied and often real estate is sold. Even declaring bankruptcy will not discharge Public Trust debts - they follow the debtor to his/her grave.

The final ignominy for criminal neglect is that the defendant may find himself/her wearing those stylish orange jumpsuits. Why are these measures so draconian elsewhere? Because these are the actions of morally bankrupt individuals who have no problem excusing their own unethical behaviour.

They ask their unsuspecting employees to trust them, work for them, enhance their reputation and make them profits all the while crippling their future chances for financial success. Is this any way to treat people?

The real reason that other taxing authorities move so quickly is because the collateral damage hits everyone's pockets and tax bills. In those countries, governments are duty bound to reimburse the social service agencies for the missing funds. Only here in Bermuda is the poor employee cut off at the knees. If you are shorted on your pension, health insurance, and OAC, government will not reimburse your accounts.

We need stricter oversight and better regulations to require these delinquent payments in full, along with penalties and interest, however, long it may take! The situation currently is archaic, unfair, and discriminatory! A good employer is an ethical human being. We see golden examples of employer care beyond measure, in little and big ways with wonderful employees, both locally and elsewhere - most recently, the banker in Florida who gave every employee who had ever worked for him a huge distribution from the sale of the bank. "These employees all contributed to my success!", he said, "without them, it would not have been possible."

What to do if you think you are being short-changed. Be responsible for yourself! Be alert to changes in your employment situation. Contact government agencies to receive updates on your old age pension. Call your insurance provider and ask if you have medical coverage that is current.

Use your pension web access and check weekly or monthly to be sure that your pension contributions are being deposited. Have a computer savvy friend help you to make sure your pension balances are up to date. You have a right to know these facts.

Don't wait until it is too late. You don't want to reach the end of your career only to realise, as some regrettably have, that their pension is substantially less than what they expected due to unethical employers. Do it now!

Take the Poll: when was the last time you reviewed your finances. Send me your reply! You have a choice of:

1. I check every month.

2. Less than a year ago.

3. More than two years ago.

4. More than five years ago.

5. I never even think about it, I trust everyone to do the right thing!

Martha Harris Myron CPA -NH1929, CFP® -67184 (US licences) TEP - Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners specializes in comprehensive financial solutions and investment advisory services for international and domestic private clients and their families, business owners, endowments and trusts. She is a senior wealth manager at Argus Financial Ltd. Confidential e-mail can be directed to martha.myron@gmail.com">martha.myron@gmail.com The article expresses the opinion of the author alone. Under no circumstances is the content of this article to be taken as specific individual investment advice, nor as a recommendation to buy/ sell any investment product. The Editor of The Royal Gazette has final right of approval over headlines, content, and length/brevity of article.