In years past, many people believed that blue-collar workers inlower- to middle-income jobs were the primary buyers of voluntaryproducts. Today, brokers who are active in the voluntary space knowthat's no longer true. Yes, blue-collar workers still buy voluntaryproducts, but so do white-collar workers. In fact, the ownershippercentages across occupational categories are very similar todayand the lowest ownership percentages are in the unskilled laborcategory—a blue-collar market.

The following table provides the percentage of employees owingat least one voluntary product by occupational category. The chartshows the percent that own and don't own voluntary within eachoccupational category. In other words, each row adds up to 100percent. So, among administrative or clerical workers, half own atleast one voluntary product, but among laborers just 38 percent ownat least one.

After surveying more than 770 employees in businesses with 10 ormore employees, we found that voluntary has very broad appealtoday. Ownership percentages across ages are very similar except inthe youngest age group (see sidebar, right). The percentages alsoare similar across household income categories.

Still, there are some industries that do seem to have a biastoward voluntary although every industry we tracked had at leastone-quarter of the employees owning a voluntary product. Fourindustries in particular had a higher than average likelihood ofemployees owning a voluntary product: government, education, realestate and manufacturing. In each of these industries over half ofemployees owned at least one voluntary product.

In many of the benefit broker surveys we've conducted, one ofthe top reasons that brokers say they don't sell more voluntary isthat they don't think the employees in their accounts would beinterested. If you still believe that, or if you think thatvoluntary is only for blue-collar workers, it's time to wake up tothe new world. The message today seems clear: Voluntary is foreveryone, whether they're buying it from you or from yourcompetitors.