Dive Brief:

• One in every three Fortune 500 companies offers veterinary pet insurance as a voluntary benefit, making it available to millions of employees throughout the U.S.  
• As one of the fastest-growing voluntary benefits in the U.S., more than 4,000 companies and organizations have added coverage provided by Veterinary Pet Insurance Co./DVM Insurance Agency (VPI), a Nationwide company, to their voluntary benefits portfolio.
• VPI customers include Chipotle Mexican Grill, Hewlett-Packard, Levi Strauss & Co., Microsoft, T-Mobile, Xerox, adidas, and Yahoo!.

Dive Insight:

Benefits are becoming a potent way to entice talent and keep them once they arrive. Pet insurance has been around for a while, but employers are starting to realize that this relatively inexpensive perk is getting traction among younger workers in particular.

"Since more than two-thirds of Americans own at least one pet, offering pet insurance will appeal to prospective pet lovers and retain current pet-owning employees," said Deana Single, director of group accounts at VPI. "Additionally, pet insurance can be added to a company's benefits package at no cost to the business."

As the popularity of pet health insurance expands, however, some employers are subsidizing a percentage of their employee's cost, with several companies now paying as much as 100 percent of their employees' pet insurance premiums, which range from $10 to $35 a month.