Two out of three small business owners say they wish they had outside help navigating employee benefits, according to a new survey from the US Chamber of Commerce and Justworks. That figure climbs to three in four among Gen Z and Millennial-owned businesses. The poll of 759 small business owners, conducted by Ipsos between August 4 and 18, found that most see benefits as essential to retaining and attracting workers, yet the same survey makes clear that cost pressure and administrative complexity are outrunning their capacity to keep up.
The timing of the report lands squarely in open enrollment season, when benefits advisors are deepest in renewal conversations with exactly this client segment.
The headline finding is not that small businesses are pulling back on benefits. They are doing the opposite. Health insurance offer rates among small businesses rose from 41% to 46% between the second quarter of 2025 and the third quarter of 2026. Dental and vision coverage jumped 10 percentage points over the same period, from 21% to 31%. Retirement plan availability, meanwhile, climbed from 22% to 27%.
The aspiration runs even higher when cost is removed from the equation. When asked what they would offer with unlimited resources, 94% of small business owners, including 83% of those who currently provide no benefits at all, said they would offer at least one. Health insurance topped that list at 71%, followed by retirement plans at 64% and paid sick leave at 61%.
Most small business owners already know what they want to offer. The harder part is executing it: choosing plans, managing renewals, and controlling costs. That is where 67% of them say they need outside help, a figure that rises to 75% among Gen Z and Millennial-owned businesses.
The reason small businesses haven't moved further is not indifference. Rising costs were cited as the primary barrier by 35% of respondents, with budget constraints named by a further 34%. Those figures come alongside a premium environment that has been grinding upward for years.
Gusto data published last month puts the median health insurance premium at small businesses at $8,743 per employee in 2026, up 31% since 2022. The smallest businesses, or those with two to five employees, have seen premium growth above 35% over the same period. They also pay roughly 6% more per employee than firms with 25 to 49 workers.
The consequence of that cost pressure is visible in the Chamber data, too. Employers are not dropping coverage, but employee satisfaction with current benefits packages has slipped. Among the small business owners who do offer benefits, 82% say their employees are satisfied with what's on offer, down seven percentage points from 89% in Q2 2025. That is still a majority, but the drop suggests cost pressure is beginning to register on both sides of the employment relationship.
Business size remains the sharpest dividing line in the small business benefits market. While 98% of businesses with 20 or more employees report offering full-time benefits, that figure drops to 57% among those with fewer than five. That gap reflects both the cost dynamics of small-group coverage and the administrative capacity that comes with scale. By industry, manufacturing businesses are more likely to offer benefits than those in services or retail: 81% compared to 65% and 64%, respectively.
That coverage gap among the smallest employers is also where the desire for outside help is most concentrated. The survey found that 35% of businesses with fewer than five employees cite not having enough employees as a barrier to offering benefits, compared to just 9% of those with 20 or more. With no dedicated HR function and limited time to evaluate plan options, these owners are making consequential decisions under real constraints, which is precisely what 67% of them say they want help managing.
"Health insurance premiums climb nearly every renewal cycle, often outpacing general inflation, which forces a tough annual tradeoff between absorbing rising costs, shifting more of the burden to employees, or scaling back coverage," said Stevie Straka, VP of People at Blumira in Ann Arbor, Michigan, one of the small businesses quoted in the Chamber report.
That tradeoff is the conversation. And most small business owners, the data suggests, would rather not be having it alone.
