By Heather Joslyn

Nonprofit employers in Massachusetts are more likely to provide health insurance to their full-time employees than are business employers nationwide, according to a new survey of worker benefits at nonprofit groups.

The survey of 649 organizations, conducted by the Boston Foundation, found that 88 percent of nonprofit groups surveyed reported that they offer medical insurance to their full-time employees.

By contrast, only 62 percent of businesses reported the same in a 2006 study by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Fifty percent of groups surveyed by the Boston Foundation said they also offer health insurance to their part-time workers.

Perhaps not surprisingly, larger organizations were more likely to provide benefits than smaller ones. For instance, only 54 percent of groups with annual budgets of less than $250,000 offer medical insurance to their full time workers, while 98 percent charities with budgets of between $1-million and $5-million reported offering the benefit

Housing organizations were most likely to provide health insurance to full-time workers, with nearly 94 percent offering the benefit, and philanthropies were least likely to follow suit, with just under 77 percent providing insurance to full time staff members.

Other Findings

The survey was supported in part by Braver PC, a financial services company in Newton, Mass., and by the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, an umbrella group for the state’s nonprofit organizations.

Among its additional findings

Eighty-two percent of respondents said they offer some type of retirement plan to their full-time workers, while 42 percent said they offer such plans to part timers. Nearly all of those groups offered defined contribution plans, such as a 401(k); only 8 percent of respondents also reported offering defined-benefit plans to full-time workers. These plans, traditional pensions in which workers receive a set amount at retirement, were often supplemental to other retirement plans or long-lived plans that were closed to new employees. Seventy-nine percent of nonprofit groups surveyed said they offer a prescription drug plan to their full-time workers, with 39 percent of respondents saying they also offer drug coverage to part-time employees Sixty-five percent of respondents reported that they offer their full-time employees dental insurance, with 39 percent saying they offer the same to part-time staff members. Fifty-two percent of Massachusetts charities surveyed said they offer life insurance to their full-time workers, with 28 percent of respondents saying they offer the same for part timers. Only 7 percent of groups with annual budgets under $250,000 offer this benefit to their workers.

The survey “For the Benefit of Our Workers: The Massachusetts Nonprofit Employee Benefit Study” is available free for download on the Boston Foundation’s Web site.