According to that piece, the most hallowed benefits include:

·        Learning and career development

·        Social and off-site events

·        Flexible working hours

·        Student loan repayment assistance

·        More holiday time-off

·        The ping pong table (work-life balance)

·        Health and well-being support

According to millennial Robert Gale, the founder of the personal finance blog Real Money Robert, health insurance is the most coveted perk an employer can provide their millennial staffers.

Why? 

“I am in the middle of the millennial generation, but I do have a family and my fellow millennials also have families or are planning to do so soon. Many of my perks are geared towards providing stability for myself and my family for many years to come,” he says. Gale declined to identify his full-time employer.

In addition to health insurance, the availability of an HSA or FSA is also a revered perk. Retirement benefits, such as a 401(K), especially when coupled with a contribution match, are also highly touted. 

What else matters to millennials? “A good company culture and a growing industry,” he says. Millennials want to be challenged, so interesting work is a must. 

With the costs associated with providing health insurance ever skyrocketing, how can a small business compete with their deep-pocketed competitors when it comes to attracting millennials? 

Gale has an answer

“I’d need a significantly higher salary so I could afford to purchase my own quality insurance plan,” he says.

Michael Dinich, an estate and tax planning advisor says health insurance itself may not be the most hallowed perk to offer people of his generation. However, that not to say it should be totally overlooked, either, he says, whose 1981 birth places him on the cusp of being both a millennial and Gen Xer.  

Being young, millennials are generally healthy “and do not see tons of value in traditional health insurance. The HSA coupled with a high deductible plan allows young employees to build cash on a tax-deferred basis,” he says.

And it’s not just employees who can benefit when HSAs are offered as an employment perk. Company owners prosper because “high deductible plans can help employers reduce health insurance costs,” says Dinich.

Tami Kamin Meyer is an Ohio attorney and writer who tweets as @girlwithapen.